From the loci of Cicero to cognitive biases and 'noise': How biases develop and grow, including in the judicial area

Abstract

After an introductory analysis of the terms stereotype and prejudice, an attempt will be made to link these concepts (of primarily psychological and sociological scope) to the rhetorical-linguistic and legal areas. It will be confirmed how certain techniques of logical-legal reasoning, in the past, technically and neutrally used certain tools (the loci) that represent the forerunners of today’s ‘prejudices’; and it will be confirmed how cognitive biases and argumentative fallacies have deformed and instrumentalized rhetoric to the point of representing the prevailing tools in the development and dissemination of prejudices, even in the judicial area, even today.