Abstract: Error management theory is a new theory of cognitive biases based on a new conceptadaptive biases. It proposes that when judgments are under uncertainty, two general types of errors are possiblefalse positives(typeⅠerrors) and false negatives(type Ⅱerrors). The costs of these two types of errors are asymmetrical. Whenever the costs of errors are asymmetrical, humanly engineered systems should be built to be biased toward making less costly errors. This bias might increase overall error rates, but it minimizes overall cost. In this article, the author still suggests the extensive prospects of EMT in social psychology, especially in aggression domain and so on.

Key words: error management theory, adaptive biases, asymmetrical costs.