Which feature does schema provide in social judgment?

Schemas play a crucial role in social judgment by providing organization to the vast amount of information we encounter about social stimuli, including people and social situations. They act as mental frameworks that help individuals categorize and interpret information efficiently, guiding perceptions and judgments based on past experiences and knowledge.

The organization aspect is critical because it allows individuals to quickly retrieve relevant information from memory, making it easier to analyze new situations. For example, when meeting someone new, a schema might include information about how to act based on the person's appearance, background, or the context of the meeting, facilitating quicker and sometimes more effective judgments.

In contrast, while schemas can incorporate elements of bias due to preconceived notions or stereotypes, their primary function is to create structure and simplify the cognitive process. This organization can lead to biased judgments, but those biases arise from the used schema rather than the inherent qualities of schema itself. The other options, such as impartiality and equal representation, do not accurately characterize the primary function of schemas in social judgment, as they are more focused on fairness than on cognitive organization.