I wish to answer five questions:
What is bias?
What is the good the bad, and the ugly of bias?
Who has bias?
Does bias come from culture or genetics, or both?
What can we do about bias?
Before, I go further I will remind the reader, I do not claim I am correct. These are only ideas. Don't believe me, rather find out for yourself what is true. Follow advice from experts instead of advice from this post. I only write this to share a theory.
This post is intended to help us all understand that mistreating people because of bias is wrong. A problem can't be solved until the problem is understood. There is no shortcut to solving the problems of bias, whatever bias is, it must be understood first before success against it can be made.
What is bias?
To start this post, I wanted to write something about how bias is currently understood by the average person. I read several definitions for bias and compared them. Explanations commonly included these descriptions:
- Bias can be in favor or against something.
- Bias is a perception created in the mind.
- Bias is unreasonable.
- Bias may be persistent behavior or a tendency.
- Bias is prejudice. Prejudice is an interesting word, I think of pre-judgement when I hear it.
Definitions uncommonly included these descriptions:
- Bias is a lack of a neutral point of view.
- Bias is a strong viewpoint.
- Bias can be conscious or unconscious.
- Bias can be good or bad.
- Bias prevents objectivity.
Only some definitions concluded that bias can be either good or bad. In culture, the word is often used to denote something exclusively negative. In this post, I will be using the word bias to communicate when we make choices not based on evidence, but rather some other phycological reason. I will write about what I believe is good and bad about this.
First we have to figure out what the word means to you and me. The word bias for many of us, may carry a huge emotional weight. I have no issue with those that think of bias as word describing only bad behavior, perhaps the differences of believes is only in the definition of this word, as I also believe it's bad to mistreat people. To me the word means more then finding excuses to hate each other. To me, it's a broad subject of human behavior of how we attempt to understand the world around us, and attempt to use that understanding to help us survive.
My point is that we don't all use the definition of bias as the same. This leads to confusion. Forgive me, if my definition offends you. I ask you continue to read, and hold off conclusions for now.
I call bias that is good for us positive bias, and bias that is bad for us as negative bias. After adopting this new mindset, I now think about society in a new way. If we can work out what is true and what is false in our believes about bias, the benefit will be sweet.
Much of bias is in the unconscious mind. We believe our bias doesn't exist, and we may believe the bias of others does exist. All without really knowing what is happening around us, yet being confident of our conclusions.
In the definitions I explored of the word bias, I only have issue with bias being a strong viewpoint. It's true that people think of bias as being an extreme or strong viewpoint. The issue I have is that currently I can't think of any word that would indicate a small amount of bias. We could say "they have a little bias,". That kind of works, but not enough. Being indicated with bias is socially dangerous, even if it's a little bias. Honestly talking about bias becomes difficult, when it carries social stigma against the bias person. Because of this, we are likely to either deny it, and loose the self reflection that would have been good for us, or sink into self-hatred and again loose the healthy self reflection we need. If there are things about us that we know others will not like about us, we are likely to keep them secret. So the problem can live on.
I don't like thinking that bias is only bias when it's a strong tendency. If we think this way I fear it would inhibit us from being open about something that is so common to our behavior. We need the word to describe the very big and complicated subject it belongs too.
I wrote my own definition of bias:
Bias: Working to achieve a goal of the subconscious mind, by ignoring evidence, or fabricating evidence in order to prove the validity of a belief that will bring about the achievement of the goal.
Yes, I have an odd way of writing definitions, but I follow my thoughts while I write.
Now that I have discussed what bias is defined as, I will discuss what bias is. To my understanding bias exists for two reasons, these reasons explain what bias is. They are to give us mental efficiency, and to help us hold on to believes that we believe subconsciously will help us survive.
Bias is a thought that seems to be doing something to other thoughts. It somehow lives in the information network in our mind as a filter, kind of like a committee in our head that is examining each thought. It is very careful not to let any thought be completed without being first checked for contradictions to the bias belief. If a contradiction to a bias is found, alterations to the thought will have to be made, or other information will have to be added to it, so that it will not contradict a bias we have. All this is done to make the thought make sense in the matrix of our belief systems in the mind. As odd or bad for us as this all seems, we have to ask the question; how can we act, if we have contradictions in our mind? Have you even felt it was hard to choose between two things that you wanted. Imagine a difficult choice like that for all the choices you make. Our brain needs to keep things simple for us.
It makes sense to me, that the brain would not want contradictions. Our brain has to make decisions. A lot of decisions. Sometimes they have to be fast decisions, or constant decisions. Do we really have the time to deliberate over every conclusion? It seems we have been created with the ability to take a shortcut, instead of using careful deliberations. We have pre-created deliberations, conclusions we don't have to recalculate. When a stove is turned on, you know it's hot, you don't need to investigate, you learned what a hot stove was as a child. We make decisions all the time based on previous experience. To question, test, and proof something has a cost of time, effort, possibly danger to it. Pre-created deliberations are efficient. Survival requires efficiency. So it makes sense that some of our stubborn beliefs would have an efficient purpose.
Until modern times, people had to devote most of their time toward their sustainment. People could not survive unless they kept themselves busy. Farmers and craftsmen, and the many vital jobs women performed, greatly filled up their lives. It's only in recent generations people have more time. More time to think.
The modern world is getting more modern all the time. Not only are we changing, but changing in ways not changed before. I have seen people trying to adapt to the modern world, by doing one basic thing, speed up. As the world becomes more complicated we attempt to keep up by quickly changing ourselves. Should we adapt this way? Can we? What if the winning strategy is to not speed up, but to slow down?
Let me explain, I came to this conclusion after thinking about this:
What I often see people doing, is that they seem to take a very complicated subject. A subject in fact that is reasonably too complicated, and attempt to make a simple model of that concept in their mind. This is not a conscious behavior. Rather, our brain seems to be very naturally adapted to handle such an attempt. Small information models that can be used to represent a large complicated subject have advantages. They are faster to calculate, as they have less information. They require less space to store them in. Whether we are talking about a brain of a living creature, or an electronic computer, some of the same principles may apply to each other. The fewer the calculations needed in an algorithm the faster it will run on a processor. A computer programmer would want a small program over a large program, if it still did the same job. Because smaller is faster.
Faster is one reason, a bigger reason would be capability. Can we truly comprehend the vastness of the universe. No, not even a small part of it. So instead, we use a small conceptual model of the universe in our mind instead. It's not a perfect representation of the universe, but it gives us more then nothing. Can we fit a map of our city in our memory? No, but we can represent some of the navigation in our memory model. We can remember some of the street names, somewhat the order they are in. We can have the route to our school, or work place, in our model. When we want to find a location in our city, we compare the location to locations we already have in our small model in our mind. We don't have to have the whole town layout of the city in our mind to achieve this. In fact, we could note have the whole town, every street, every turn, every location in our heads?
The big concept to understand here, is that this process is used for everything in our mind. Our beliefs, politics, religion and experiences from our past. All of them have a model created in our mind, to represent something too big for our mind to store.
Perhaps evolution or creationism did this for us. With the limited amount of brain power we humans have, we would need a way of maximizing our ability to comprehend the things around us. Perhaps all this is a big part of what it means to be human. It is our mental shortcut, that is more then just a shortcut, it makes us capable to not just see and hear, but to calculate all we see and hear and build an idea of it. Rather then understanding a subject to it's infinite complexity, we would develop this simple model, and actually get the job done, then by experience and through instruction from others, continually modify it, and hopefully make it better over time.
If you couldn't hold the universe in your mind, wouldn't you settle for a small version of it, instead of nothing?
Partly of what bias is, is part of this model design in our heads. Rather then having the overhead of a complicated model, we instead will fill in some of the concepts in the model with bias. For example, rather then viewing a diverse group of people as all very unique, we instead will view them as all the same, with all the same attributes. Instead of understanding diversity, we view people with uniformity. This can be a very useful way for groups of people to compete with each other. Here is a list of examples, of typical groups we would do this with in our mind:
- other ethnic groups of people
- other religious groups of people
- other nationalities of people
- our enemies
- co-workers
- all unions
- other political groups of people
- All the rich
- All the poor
- All the teachers
- Our parents
- Our children
- The group of other children who bully us
- Criminals
- The police
- The lawyers
- The students
- The scientists
- The religious
- The educated
- The uneducated
It's hard to image an end to this list. There are so many groups we can have bias for. Having an all purpose set of beliefs for a group of people will make our mental models simpler.
So with humanity prospering like never before, giving us time to think, and resources to share ideas, does this mean our methods of using small models needs to change? Do we have enough power over our instincts to even change them? I would say, yes, and a bit. People in history, have limitations of time and communication. We have less limits today. In the olden times people needed their models small, so they can be used efficiently. It would take less effort to make them and use them. The poor in olden times had the simplest models. The rich used more time and effort, and communication to improve their models. This helped them maintain their standing, but also have success against other wealthy rivals. Today, we will need to more and more shift our stratagem to that of the wealthy people of the past. We must sacrifice speed, for more utility. This means more then just more classes in school, it means being open, to take opportunities to learn, even though it will cost us time, effort, perhaps even within reason, safety.
Information has always been complicated. Some of the information we are given is true, some is not. Most is both. Simpler models will not help us identify false information as we age into adult hood. Even older children and teens will need to have more complicated models then previous generations, to sort out what is true, and what will destroy us. A small model will carry with it the temptation to change with every fad that interacts with us.
Let me simplify, do we like discussing things? Sometimes no, do we like sitting in a court room, and see how slow things are? Do we like a small fraise of a post, or do we like the long description over pages of thoughts building up to something? Do we have enough time to reflect on what we heard others say, and what we want to say next? What do we want with our modern world? Do we want to skim over a subject, and feel there is nothing more too it, and move on? Sampling many things that will make us an expert of none of them. Or to go deep, and find things not often found.
Simple models are good, in that they are fast, it may be right for some people to use them. But they are limited in what they can represent. Complicated and large models are slow to run, and slow to build, and slow to improve. However, what is gained is versatility, and accuracy. I don't wish to imply one is better then they other. It's a question like, do you want a race car, or a truck. Both have advantages and disadvantages, both edify some kind of vanity, but a different kind. We can be proud of our mental models, no matter what they are, as they are all uniquely good in some way.
These models are concepts that are taught to us by others as we are young. So people will inherit them from others, and or, build them through experience. We will refine them and pass them on from generation to generation as far as they can be passed on. Some level of building them may require experience, teaching alone may not be enough to create models to represent the world.
So how does bias fit into all this? It's coming. I mention all this, because to understand ourselves we must understand why we are limited.
To me, knowledge is a representation of reality only. In my view this does not detract from the amazing beauty that intelligence has. It fills me with wonder that a small thing can be used to grasp at such an infinite thing.
You might say, you already know our mind is limited, it's obvious. There is more. Our brain also has a powerful tool to allow our mind to use these models. You can't use a small model of a concept, without accepting that it will not always be right. If the model is not right, then it should not be used. So we have a problem. We need to use these models to comprehend the world around us, yet, if we do, these models can't always be right, and may never be perfectly right.
What we need is a powerful tool that can ignore the obvious information, that would contradict our model of reality. We can't use the model if it isn't trusted. For our limited mind, it's compromise or indecisiveness. Our mind uses the best information available. A model with flaws is still a model, and it's better then a lessor model or no model. If a model cannot be fixed, then information will be ignored, or new information will be fabricated so that the model can still operate. The best possible choice known is made, the contradictory information however obvious is ignored and the model is used.
This is bias. It is not an alien force getting us to make bad choices. Rather it's our own necessity that makes us ignore the obvious. In a way we have little to no control over it.
I will explain the same thing, but in a different way. The point of life is to survive and reproduce, and to also get better at surviving and reproducing. If survival is the point, then is the truth important? If something is true, yet contradicts something that we subconsciously believe will help us survive, then not only is there an obstacle to our survival in our environment, but there is an obstacle inside our mind too. We must ignore something obvious in order to survive. We must survive in order to reproduce. We must get better at surviving and reproducing to overcome all the obstacles we will face. Our mind naturally will want to avoid the truth, if it believes the truth is dangerous.
If you are religious or not, consider the line "The truth will set you free" from the Gospel of John, 8th chapter, 32nd verse. This line was written down for future generations to read over two thousand years ago. Yet, even with this idea injected into our culture, we still follow our instincts, and follow the bias that would help us survive.
At times, we may be able to push ourselves beyond this logic, and accept the truth, with a trust that the truth will somehow help us despite that in our mind the truth may cause us loss and pain. This leap of trust is not often the case.
Should we be a sad about his? No. I don't believe that all this is bleak. There are moments in the past, were ignoring the truth, seemed like a good idea, but still some people managed to trust the truth anyway, and in the end, it was believing in the truth that helped them survive, or at least their cause. So deep inside us is the genes of people who were very good at times in ignoring the truth, and the genes of people who at times accepted the truth, however difficult it may have been. Those people likely are not different people in our family history, they are the same people, at times doing both as best they could, and through it all, they survived, reproduced, and you are here to inherit their strength.
Humans being social creatures need bias. All social living creatures use bias. Even a swarm of bees gathering honey, have bias, as their mind drive them to produce for their hive, and none other. To defend their hive with their live. Humans being the most complicated of social creatures know, we have bias to control ourselves in society. We make conclusions that conform us to those who we need, and we create mental models of the world that allow us to think in terms of compatibility with others. Those without social abilities will have hardships with interacting with society. We have these tools to help us with all this social complexity.
So what we have today, is a powerful tool called bias to help us make models, inherit models, improve them or keep them the same. It's the best mental service that limited intelligence can provide. Our intelligence achieves more by design then raw thinking power alone can achieve. There will be dangers and rewards in the process of using and changing our mental models of the universe. For at times better, and at times worse, bias makes this process possible.
When we are ready, we should always accept the truth. When we are ready, we should move to the truth beyond that, when we are ready.
What is the Good the Bad and the Ugly of Bias
I do believe, that all bias will bring in the end, have one of three outcomes for us. It will either help us, hurt us or do nothing to us. There is positive bias, were good comes because we embrace bias, like the love parents have for their children, they will keep loving their kids even with foolish mistakes. This bias help kids get another chance as they are young and learning. Negative bias, like expecting your co-worker is not very good at their job, because they are attempting to do the job differently then what you are used to. Finally bias that is neither good nor bad, but is just there, for example, liking the color blue, just because as a kid you needed an answer to tell people, and it seemed like a fine color, over time you became accustomed to it. Bias is all around us, in fact all human actions have bias. Some of it we need, to be happy, and will help us be good people to other people. Some of it will cause us to treat others harshly, or ourselves harshly. We are best without this kind, despite how our natural selves will want to embrace it.
Yes, bias all over human thought and actions! You love your family, that's bias. You love your sports team, that bias. You love your school, that's bias. You love your home town, that's bias. Ask yourself these questions: Is your sports team really the best? Is your school the best(past or present)? Is your home town the best? Good bias, is being bias towards the things that are good for us. Parents are bias towards their children. Children are bias towards their parents. If something brings us good, we are inclined by our biology to be bias towards it.
Do you love all the cheese burgers in the world? If you like cheese burgers you would likely say yes. How much more do you love your cheese burger that is in front of you? Your cheese burger is special, it's special because it's your cheese burger. All the other cheese burgers in the world are far away, and not accessible to you, and you wouldn't need all the cheese burgers in the world, you just have one stomach. So the one cheese burger you have, in a way, is the best cheese burger in the universe. Bias will help us understand how important our cheese burger is, compared to all the other cheese burgers, because it's the one that we will enjoy.
Likewise think of all the families in the world, all with intense biologically driven love between parents and kids, and kids and parents. Parents love their kids because they are theirs, and kids love their parents because they are theirs. Family is special because it's your family. There are families all over this world, but only one shares your gene's.
My point with this, is that there is such a thing as good bias, and it is possible for good bias to be diminished, and lost. We need to help our feelings hold on to good bias, then help our feelings push away, or over write bad bias, and the ugly bias, can stay and can just find it's own path, as it's not critical for it to stay, but it's not critical for it to leave either. I will discuss more about what to do with our bias in the last section of this post, so stay tuned for that.
Family, sports teams, schools, and our home town, all have a strong possibility of helping us in some way. Being bias toward them would improve our changes of making them stronger, and in turn making us more positively effected by them.
Now what about bad bias? Think of the ancient romans, who followed their generals into battle. If their general was victorious, they would share in the riches gained. And the general would make sure his men believed the riches came directly from him and his leadership. As the general was proven to them as a source of providence, the roman solders would love their general, and be devoted to him.
In the end, the roman general, may not keep his promises as they often didn't. Roman solders could spend years traveling in long marches, risk death, and in the end return home to find their land gone taken from them, and their family poor. Bias can sometimes lead us toward something we believe is beneficial, we will ignore warning sides of trouble with our bias. Very easily we will find ourselves hurting because we invested our believes, in other words our bias into something that could not provide what we thought it would. This is the negative side of bias. With bias we might invest our hearts into a venture that will lead us to what will ultimately cause grief and lost opportunity with false promises.
That investment sounded good, but turned out those that sold it to you understood it was unrealistic. Maybe the ruling dictator promised equality, but in the end it was a palace for him and his friends, and long lines for bread for everyone else. Perhaps we wanted to buy expensive luxuries, to be happy like our neighbors who all had them, but in the end, the thrill of acquiring them left, and toys didn't add meaning to live like we thought it would. Perhaps, we thought the criminal gang would be a family to us, but in the end, it was only our Mother that really loved us, and was our family, that we ignored.
What is bad bias and good bias, is a huge discussion, but finding out which bias is good, and which bias is bad is just a matter of looking deeply into it. We will sometimes misjudge our bias, thinking the good is bad, and they bad is good.
Maybe your home town doesn't have good memories. Perhaps the days of school was full of troubles. If something is a source of pain, or at least you believe it's a source of pain, our bias will begin cause us to form a bias to conclude your home town is not worth traveling too. You may speak ill of your school, even when it could be a good fit for others. There is always bias, good, bad or ugly. To find it, and understand it, is the challenge.
What about racism? You can't talk about bias without racism. Racism is obviously bias, and a flagship example of negative bias. Like all bias, racist bias is done because the racist person wants something out of it. If others are lowered in status, then all others are then higher in status, including those who create racism. Racism, causes what is unique about humanity to be ignored, we need to hear and understand people that think differently, we need people to also be genetically different. Genetic uniformity, brings the dangers of extinction.
Think of what a child must feel, when they learn that others will not like them, because of how they look or act, or believe. What a heart break, for all the children of the world, that are first shown love by their parents, then show hate by others. Especially for children this is an major problem, for adults as well, but for children it's a bigger problem, because they still have young hearts, that are ready to be taught. For a child to learn they are hated for a reason that has no logic, it will create distrust, and problems that will lead to more problems with bias later in life.
I wish I new what to do about racism, but I don't. What I do know, is that our bias will be interfering with us in unexpected ways, that will cause people to drift apart and see each other as enemies, to solve racism, we will need to change their perspectives of seeing others as enemies to not enemies. We will in the end always judge each other, but how you judge someone we feel we have a group identity with, verses someone that has an identity of an enemy will make all the difference. Solving this problem of racism, or any kind of discrimination, will require people first understand bias better, then they can make smarter decisions on how to come closer together, and develop a single identity that they can bond with socially. The more we can understand ourselves, and the bias within ourselves, the better our odds at fixing all social problems.
One of the most excessive forms of negative bias that I have seen in my own experience, is bias towards those that compete with us for the things we want. Road rage, is an example of this. We don't want to share the road with others, their existence will delay us, their choices effect us. In another way young people often experience this in romantic jealously, they will form a bias against those that may win favor with their romantic crush. For situations where others may get or will get what we want we have jealousy. Bias will create justification in our minds, allowing us to compete with them even in unethical ways. We may seek to undermine them, and rejoice in their failures. Why, because our natural selves is not always ethical, or good, but rather will fill us with emotions and thoughts to fuel our bias, and try to push us to get what we want.
Negative bias is very common. The end result, is that we could of had more, of we would have embraced a different strategy. Negative bias, is seductive and seemingly easier. Yet, there is another path, by embracing good bias, bias towards things that are not seductive or easy, yet they have the potential of providing lasting rewards, sustainable rewards. Negative bias is a cheap breakable tool, easily sold, it will break unexpectedly. Positive bias, is a dependable tool, when used correctly, it will last, and bring you success as you put effort into it's care.
One of the best examples of bias is tribalism. If we start a job, join a church or political party. We became part of a social group that will influence us. We humans need to be part of groups, because we depend on each other for support. There can be good groups and bad groups, and just groups, not all that good or all that bad. No matter good or bad, groups we join will influence us. Our biology is designed to develop our bias to match the humans we get along with around us.
We have to be careful about who we trust. Who we trust will greatly influence what our bias will be.
There are tribes that are bad to join. They're believes will focus on negative bias, and those that appose them will be blamed for being the ones with negative bias. It can be very difficult to recognize bias, because by it's nature, it comes from the subconscious mind, and in turn difficult to recognize when you have socially joined yourself to a tribe that has abundant negative bias. We would all like to think that we would never join a tribe that had lots of negative bias. But that is another trick about negative bias, there is always temping justification, that the most intelligent people may not understand it for what it is. People that are young can be very vulnerable to groups or "tribes" that indulge in negative bias, as they don't have experience enough to see counterfeits, or they may not have a healthy tribe in their live to have something to compare with. Identifying tribes as good or bad is not easy, don't think it is. Bias will be in the way, to hinder your thinking. Very easily you may condemn a group of people falsely, or look past the negativity of a group you have sympathies for.
So what about ugly bias? You may have a bias against a music bad, or an actor that annoys you, yet everyone else seems to like. It's not wrong to have opinions. It's not wrong to express how we feel. However, your opinions may just be useless opinions without any real purpose, and are not really harmful to you either. Consider for a moment that many of the thinks we hate or love, we may hate or love because we just need to have an opinion. We need to have a character. A person we can be in front of other people, that will maximize our ability to be someone. We will need to be part of a social group, and conform to that group to get them to like us. But often we will also need some distinction in that group, because we will want something unique that strategically can be used to help us perhaps climb the social ladder, and show we have value to others we have relationships with.
This is part of creating an ego. To me an ego is like a mast we wear so we will fit in at parties. We will have lots of ugly bias to create the ego, others need to see in us, or we need to see in ourselves.
Remember, some bias it's not good or bad, it's just there. Is it necessary? Perhaps in some way, or perhaps not. We have this tendency to wear a mask, and not show our true personality. It comes down to trust, can we trust others with our true selves, or is a mask safer? As imperfect as it can be, there is argument that we need these limiting social tools like the ego to help us. Most people wouldn't think much of us, unless we socially could provide something for them. It's just normal, for these kinds of bias to be a part of us.
Who has bias?
Remember this most of all, we all have bias, it may be small or great, or something unique to us, but it's there. It is more in control of us, then we think.
I once thought that bias was something that just bad people had, and that I was living a life above the evil of it. I thought this, because that is what society generally believes about themselves. I accepted that, because I'm bias. In fact, after many years of reflection, I've come to think that all choices, and conclusions I have ever had, had bias in some part of them. It's the same for all people, we are not capable of having a conclusion without some amount of bias.
Our own bias, teaches us that we have little to no bias, and our enemies are loaded with it. This is all wrong, we all have bias, and lots of it.
Why do we always have bias, because we always have needs of survival. We need to eat, sleep, stay warm, and pass on our genes to a health gene pool. This is going to require lots of social maneuvering. Which mean bias.
This doesn't mean people are always morally wrong in their conclusions, it just means right or wrong, their conclusion will still have bias.
If we attempt to abandon bias, we will find ourselves only removing one kind of bias, to make room for another. To me, it is not a question of if we have bias, it's only a question of how much, and to what.
There has been much talk in the past few years about a concept often called tribalism. It's when a person favors the group of humans they believe they are apart of, over people of a different tribe. We don't have tribes today as we did long in the past, but the equivalents are present, and our biology still causes us to interact with others as if they are or are not part of our tribe. We make tribes and join them without anyone forcing us to.
With bias, tribalism is possible. Rational thinking may cause us to not side with our tribe on a subject. So bias is used by the mind, in order to not upset the tribe. If contradiction is the price for survival, then the people of the world have ancestors that accepted contradictions. We need tribes. A tribe can act together on a problem. Wrong or right, they can get something done, and react in a unified way when an emergency happens.
It's because of this, people want to subconsciously conform to tribes, and also will subconsciously want others to be recruited to their tribe to make their tribe stronger.
Every person under the effects of tribalism, has bias. To me, that includes even the most independent minded people to some degree.
Another important component to bias is ourselves. We have DNA that we want to share with future generations. To do that, we have to have bias toward ourselves. Even if logically others may seem to have more survival DNA then ours, we must still play to win. We must believe there is a chance for us to achieve greatness even if there is not. There is a profound logic to this, you cannot survive unless you try, so unless you try, there is no way of knowing how fit your DNA is.
You may ask, why do people get depressed, why do people sometimes people hate themselves? Some of this may be that we are born with something out of our control, so survival instincts may not work in everyone, as they logically should. Perhaps it could be that our instincts to be bias toward our social group is overpowering our instincts to be bias toward ourselves. Our devotion to our group goes beyond reason, an we forget our devotion to ourselves as we should.
The opposite could also happen, our devotion to ourselves goes beyond reason, and we forget our devotion to our group. This to me, is selfishness.
If we have depression or self hate, then something is wrong. We should seek professional help. Bias in this case will make self treatment near impossible. Our natural sense of bias should have helped us already if we are to that point, so you will have to get help. If we have selfishness, then we will also need help, so that we can enjoy the benefits of the group.
A good argument against what I'm writing, is the examples of human individually, and kindness toward others of different social tribes. Are we forever destined to stay within the mold we are created in, or can we become more? This is really still for me an open question. I feel that it is possible to break any biological mold, but can I do it, or can you?
I will not fully answer this question for you. There have been times where I think it's possible, and other times were I have accepted that it must not be. We can always try. With an honest effort we are likely to make progress of some kind. Is it possible to make all of humanity our tribe? We maybe want to say yes, but can we live with the complexity of that. Though our instincts make us want to join a tribe, we do it because we want to survive. If we come to the conclusion our tribe is not bringing us survival as we would want it, we may instinctively have a change in mindset to join another tribe, and adopt their beliefs. We may even form a new tribe because of this too.
Having all of humanity think of themselves as one tribe, is not just about doing it, and ending the problems of humanity. This world tribe that included all of humanity would need to have something special, to the point people would all want to be apart of it, not through compulsion, or manipulation. It would have to provide everyone what they wanted in a tribe, otherwise the tribe would break into two tribes. There has been many social groups of humans on planet earth, none of them have come close to achieving this.
So the goal of eliminating bias by having all of humanity join the same tribe, to thus eliminate tribalism, is more difficult to the point of being near impossible.
Despite how must we train ourselves, in the end we will forever have some bias, still locked away deep within us. After all, we want to survive. Our need for survival never disappears. So the next time your feelings control you in an altercation with someone. I'm not sure how much good it will do, but know, that you have bias, and others that don't like you do too.
Does bias come from culture or our genetics, or both?
You likely already guessed the answer to this question, or perhaps I'm just being bias, and I just don't want to write anymore? So, I'm looking for ways to make answering this question easy, or maybe I'm thinking about this too much because I'm a bias intellectual wannabe. Bias is so fun to think about.
The answer is both. I believe, it is not only culture that creates bias with in us. We genetically want to favor ourselves and or a social group we feel is like our tribe. Humans have acted this way all through history in all reaches of the planet. Genetics cause that kind of uniformity. Our culture does play a major part in determining what the bias of a tribe will be, and when the culture is set on something our personal bias is right there ready to adopt it. Our biology wants bias, our culture can give our biology what it wants. The two very easily can lead us from cradle to grave, toward good things, toward bad things, and toward things we perhaps ought not to care about, but will anyway.
What can we do about bias?
I have written about what bias is. I have written that everyone has bias, both individuals and cultures. I have written that it's good, bad or just ugly for us and others. I have written that cultures alone can't be blamed for it, it's in our biology. It may be painful, but every culture has bias. Even ours.
So with all this, what do we do about this?
There is only one way we have, to help counter the negative bias.
I will introduce it as a brief riddle, "We can. I cannot."
How can one intelligent creature discover the truth? The answer, one mind cannot. It takes two minds. Two people, each with their own unavoidable bias. They only way to counter bias, is with another bias being added to it. When two different people of a different belief talk, process what is said, and talk again, and repeat the process, we begin to have a result of a more balanced, and accurate perspective.
Not just two people, two people with opposite perspectives. Two people who will be bias toward there own view point.
Think of a count of law. Counts have evolved in society for a long time, as they exist today, two opposing sides each debate their side, and their side only. The truth does not matter to a lawyer, rather it's the argument supporting one side that matters. This may seem foolish, for a person to defend one side of an argument no mater what is right or wrong, but it needs to be that way. It's the court as a whole, that gives the more accurate outcome. Say what you will about the imperfections of any court system. If it follows the principle of allowing both sides of an argument to defend it's self, it will do better at getting to the truth, then any other legal method.
Friendly banter can be quiet healthy for people, as we get exposer to other opposing ideas, but in a non threatening way.
My favorite example of this principle, comes from nature. In sexual reproduction, a species will have a male and female gender. Making both genders the same would mean, that both would have the same bias, but if they have differences of perspectives then the difference bias could interact with each other.
As humans we have always had bias through history. All living things that we know of have bias. It's really a part of life, we can't avoid it, or stop it, or ignore it to the point where it will disappear. It will always be there. Always. But that's not a problem. Because bias is like a tool in a toolbox. All the tools in a toolbox have a function. When used smartly, they work and are mostly safe, but if you use a tool in a way it's not intended, there is a real possibility something will go wrong. There are things it's okay to be bias about, things that you have a right to be bias about, and good will come to you because of it, but there are other bias that is a misuse of the tool, it will lead to ignorance, or even outright evil.
For us to know the difference between the good bias and the bad bias, we will need the help of others. We will need to listen, to people of other view points, and they will need to listen to us. We will need to listen to the opposite gender, or a different political party, or a different scientific theory, or a different coaching method, or different view of history. We don't need to accept other views, only learn to listen to them, and let them beat against the fortress of our own understanding. If our concepts are strong enough, they will last, and if we loose a believe that was right, yet what we heard fooled us, then the truth will come out eventually.
We cannot eliminate our bias, but we can improve it.
Conclusion
Why does bias exist? Because our intelligence is limited, and therefore we must make choices on limited information, so the process of evolution created bias to help us out. Who has bias? EVERYONE! Less anger, and more listening would go a long way in this modern world, and the fact we have bias can help us make a starting point it learning to use our listening skills.
How can we know what bias is good, or bad? You can't always know, but if listen to others, and let their words and yours battle in your mind it's possible to improve with time and effort, and experience. Here is a bunch of logic questions I wrote to help show what I use in determining good and evil. I will not promise they are right or useful, but I find obvious logic questions like these really can help the mind.
If the choice produces a good outcome then it is good.
If the choice can be often repeated and still produce a good outcome over time, then it is good.
If the choice leads to learning something new or improving something existing then it is good. Note that it is possible that repetition can provide improvement.
What the questions don't help with is determining what a good outcome is, that is a bigger mystery. A person could spend a whole lifetime learning what a “good outcome” is and still never fully understand it. So that interpretation I leave with you with this important warning, we must always be careful when handling morality. Handling morality is like handling explosives, a lot can go wrong. Sudo-morality creates a lot of suffering in the world, so beware, and avoid extremism, and any morality that encourages people to not question it.
I leave you with one final thought, what would we humans be if we lived our lives never interacting with another person. We would not survive without the help of caregivers this is true, but what if we could, what if we could be born into a world with any other beings to interact with, and we spent our lives in this way. There are creatures on Earth that live this way, their minds are likely adapted for that time of existence, but ours are different I feel. How could our mind understand the world without the help of others. Even with how often other people in life will lie to you, exaggerate, or spread their innocently believed false ideas onto you, all that negative interaction is still worth it I feel, if you or I can get one person very different from us, to have a bias of love toward us.
