[ Shortcuts ]

The human brain tends to look for patterns, in order to reduce uncertainty.  Patterns mean familiarity, which means the ability to shortcut, for an overwhelmed brain. Any time we can shortcut, that’s what we tend to do.

This is why we have natural and normal biases, though they may devolve into stereotypes or, worse, incorrect assumptions.  The human brain craves certainty, familiarity, and predictability. 

This applies for dealing with people, or when dealing with projects.  The people side of this discussion is behavioural and cognitive psychology.  The project side of solving uncertainty delves into project controls, risk, documentation, and procedures.