Cognitive biases, such as emotional biases and mental shortcuts, evolved as adaptive mechanisms for survival in the past.
These biases are heavily influenced by emotional responses and explicitly bypass our rational thinking brain as a “feature”. This helped our ancestors make rapid decisions based on heuristics and patterns learned from experience, conserving time and mental energy.
Our brains favor these quick decisions over slower, more deliberate thinking because in the past, spending too much time pondering could mean missing opportunities or facing danger. However, these biases lead to faulty reasoning in our modern context.