Ideas or opinions that you form about something before you actually know the facts or have real experience with it.
From Latin 'prae-' (before) and 'conceptionem' (a conceiving or forming of an idea). The prefix 'pre-' attached to 'conception' literally means 'conceptions that come before.' This term emerged in English philosophy and psychology to describe the mental biases we carry before encountering reality.
Scientists call preconceptions 'priors' or 'biases,' and they've discovered that even people trying to be objective can't escape them—your brain literally filters information through what you already believe. This is why the scientific method deliberately tries to eliminate preconceptions through experiments and blind testing!
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