The Bias
I am biased and so are you. Don’t deny it and don’t lie to yourself. We live in a very biased society. Politics, entertainment, sports, religion etc you name a “group” of people, there is a good chance that they can be biased. Why do we have our biases? Personally I’ve noticed it helps me in making quick decisions/judgements, which is very close to what I’ve read about Cognitive Bias.1
Scientifically there are two types of bias: implicit (subconscious) and explicit (conscious). I want to approach these two biases in three different ways: examples, recognizing and accepting. Please note, there is a good chance that I would cross very thin lines, if anyone is offended I am not apologizing. As a cynic I believe that humans should accept their shortcomings and improve to the extent they can. And I say “they can” because we are only human.
Implicit Bias
Implicit bias is natural. To understand how at a subconscious level our biases are formed, is a journey everyone should try at least once. If I had a penny for every time I heard, “I have some soul searching to do” or “I have to find myself”.. sigh. So let’s do some soul searching here.
I’m making up this as I write, so just for fun follow my thought patterns. What is our brain? No, I’m not asking for anything scientific. On a very basic level, our brain remembers and can co-relate. Now stay with me, let’s start with stereotypes. What is the first thing you can relate to when you hear the word stereotypes? I’m sure you might have got couple of examples but just hold onto two. I can almost guarantee that you had some sort of bias in it. This is implicit bias on a very basic level.
Great, now that I have helped you (hopefully!) to recognize that almost everyone gets impacted by implicit bias.. now what? Acceptance is a good start. My next step is to ensure complete eradication of all biases (I know it’s hard for all non-cynical people to get this joke). It’s only human to be biased but understanding the possible cause of others biases makes humans have humanity.
Explicit Bias
Examples – Seriously? Are you kidding me? You want me to list it down? Fine, let me list it down. Below is a small list but this could cover the major explicit biases that exist.. loudly.
- Religion
- Skin Color
- Nationality
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Political
- Culture
Our implicit biases along with being conscious about it, drives our explicit biases. So what makes up our biases? Literally all the factors mentioned above. One of my favorite topics in this is media bias.
I’ve been in US for a long time and am quite well versed with all the influence of media in this society, like everywhere else. There has been a study conducted on this by ad fontes media. Which shows how explicit biases exist on the political spectrum of conservatism and liberalism. This new wave of extreme political beliefs has currently split the world into two. One stating it’s better than the other, explicitly. Now put the same thought process of “better than the other” for the other above mentioned examples.
Recognize it. Accept it.
Again, now what? Unlike implicit bias, you can actually make an effort to improve yourself for recognizing explicit bias. The term “open mind” exists for a reason. Understand others, where they are coming from. You can’t change others, but you can change yourself. Give me a hallelujah. As a cynic, I can sometimes feel the symptoms when sometimes a sense of positivity rises. This was one of them.
The Prejudice
“I don’t judge”
Don’t say that. You do. Don’t be in denial. Everyone judges and no one can deny that.
Everyone has a prejudice because of their biases, both implicit and explicit. The impact of our biases to our society have caused wars and revolutions. It’s hard to rectify our implicit biases, but recognizing our explicit biases which are currently relevant to the society goes a long way. You can be at either end of a bias and still get along with people. Just because you are prejudiced doesn’t mean you can’t be understanding.
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