Error Management Theory
Error Management (EM) is an extensive theory of perception and cognitive biases that was created by David Buss and Martie Haselton. The cognitive biases refer to biases and heuristics that have survived evolutionary history because they at the least held slight reproductive benefits. The entire premise of the theory is built around the drive to reduce or manage costly reproductive errors. According to the theory, when there are differences in the cost of errors made under conditions of uncertainty, selection favors “adaptive biases”; these adaptive biases ensure that the less costly survival or reproductive error will be committed. The theory itself is still in its early stages of development, although similar ideas have been touched on since the beginning of evolutionary psychology. The theory itself is still in its early stages of development, although similar ideas have been touched on since the beginning of evolutionary psychology. The authors are currently "testing and refining" the theory.
Error Management Theory asserts that evolved mind-reading agencies will be biased to produce more of one type of inferential error than another. These mind-reading biases have been further researched in terms of the mating world. Error management theory provides a clear explanation for the discovery that men seem to infer that women are sexually interested them just because they smile at the men or touch them.
Read more about Error Management Theory: Type Errors, Sexual Overperception Bias, Sexual Underperception, Other Examples
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“An error the breadth of a single hair can lead one a thousand miles astray.”
—Chinese proverb.
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—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
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