Our brains can actually consider physical objects and impose new or different functions on it even if it is not a part of its physical nature, using only our collective minds. This phenomenon is called social reality.

It has an amazing level of influence on our lives, not only on an individual level but the effects can be felt globally. Where we believe a certain stereotype, soon it creates a self-fulling prophecy which perpetuates the stereotype in a vicious cycle.

The brain makes categories based on context. Say an elephant, a fountain, and a water gun are all three different objects, however, the brain can categorize them as "objects that can shoot water."

The categories made by the brain are extremely flexible and are what drives many of our actions and experiences. this is also the engine behind social reality because when we share such categorizations and make them real it is able to influence people as well as our genetic evolution as a species.