Automation of cognitive processes mediated by social systems

Abstract

Can social systems influence cognitive processes? This question opens up the possibility of thinking about cognition as the individual expression of the interface between physiology and society. The former, guided by genetic processes under developmental constraints, accounts for the neuronal plasticity of the Central Nervous System, which allows diversity in the other level: the social/cultural. Can this level modulate the former? And more specifically: What would be the modulatory mechanisms of capitalist and patriarchal social systems on cognitive processes? Here we propose that these mechanisms involve the automation of cognitive processes, especially in vulnerable social sectors, to the detriment of more reflective processes. Dual process theories propose that cognitive processes can be automatic (system 1) or reflective (system 2). Some of these theories propose that the latter can operate with both the original and the resulting information of the automatic process, affirming or modifying the initial result. The persistence of stereotypes, implicit access to a large volume of information, the absence of social criteria for classifying it as relevant ("post-truth"), the reproduction of institutions as instances of authority and power, and an increasingly demanding, precarious, and pathological daily and work life (chronic stress, burn-out, depression, etc.) are potential conditions that - we hypothesize - could favor a tendency towards the automation of cognitive processes, mainly among workers in general, and women in particular.