Strategies of universalism: Ten routes toward unbiased solutions to social problems

Abstract

AbstractUniversalism is a principle according to which a rule or a standard should be applied in social situations in the same way irrespective of the social attributes of those who are affected by this rule/standard. This normative claim collides with the fundamental mechanisms of social cognition, which underlie social biases, prejudice, and discrimination. Social biases are the main source of violation from the universalism principle across various domains of human life: evaluations, judgments, decision‐making, problem‐solving, social interaction, among others. Whereas normative universalism is a moral principle, the present study asks how it can be realised in practice. The study identifies three broad classes of such strategies. The first one targets individuals' cognitive and psychological traits, which give rise to social biases and include intergroup contact, social cognitive strategy, reappraisal, motivational strategy, and bias control. The second class targets the situation and includes three strategies: disengagement, randomisation, and counterbalancing biases by aggregation. The third class includes two strategies, which rely on technological solutions: automation and neural administration. The study describes the core idea and main problems of each strategy and discusses how the choice of a strategy depends on the context and the task, which requires a universal solution.