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One of the central findings of human psychology is that everyone has biases, particularly biases based on social groups. I'm sure there are many biases, but among the biggest are:
1) We are naturally more likely to favor people that we can related to.
2) We all look for patterns and tend to generalize from them (some good: shy people are more introspective, some bad: men are more violent, some neutral: men are taller than women).
To some extent these are a naturally occuring function of human nature. But, obviously they can have big downsides. If people like to favor people like themseleves that sometime gets in the way of hiring the best person for the job or maybe if I'm a female teacher I might give girls a little more attention since I can identify with them more.
Say I'm looking to fill a job and I'm evaluating two candidates. One attended an Evangelical Christian college and I think Evangelical Christians are anti-gay and might not work well with gay staffers. I can point to opinion surveys that prove that on average Evangelical Christians hold more negative views of homosexuality than the general population. So it is not a baseless stereotype. But, does merely being a member of a broad social group mean this person will by definition have issues with co-workers? Of course not. There are lots of Evangelical Christians who whatever their personal beliefs work just fine with gay people.
So while biases maybe part of human nature, they can also be unfair and lead to bad decision making. What can be done to help eliminate them?
One of the central findings of human psychology is that everyone has biases, particularly biases based on social groups. I'm sure there are many biases, but among the biggest are:
1) We are naturally more likely to favor people that we can related to.
2) We all look for patterns and tend to generalize from them (some good: shy people are more introspective, some bad: men are more violent, some neutral: men are taller than women).
To some extent these are a naturally occuring function of human nature. But, obviously they can have big downsides. If people like to favor people like themseleves that sometime gets in the way of hiring the best person for the job or maybe if I'm a female teacher I might give girls a little more attention since I can identify with them more.
Say I'm looking to fill a job and I'm evaluating two candidates. One attended an Evangelical Christian college and I think Evangelical Christians are anti-gay and might not work well with gay staffers. I can point to opinion surveys that prove that on average Evangelical Christians hold more negative views of homosexuality than the general population. So it is not a baseless stereotype. But, does merely being a member of a broad social group mean this person will by definition have issues with co-workers? Of course not. There are lots of Evangelical Christians who whatever their personal beliefs work just fine with gay people.
So while biases maybe part of human nature, they can also be unfair and lead to bad decision making. What can be done to help eliminate them?
Nothing at all. Neither you nor I nor anyone else has a right to interfere with our personal thoughts, beliefs and biases. Sorry that's human nature.
Nothing at all. Neither you nor I nor anyone else has a right to interfere with our personal thoughts, beliefs and biases. Sorry that's human nature.
I agree and want to add that in this day and age we are being forced to believe things we don't. This overly PC country is shaming and practicing a form of mind control that is part evil and part scary.
When people can be who they are without fear of recrimination and we learn to accept people's opinions that differ from ours, THEN we can rid ourselves of biases.
I agree and want to add that in this day and age we are being forced to believe things we don't. This overly PC country is shaming and practicing a form of mind control that is part evil and part scary.
When people can be who they are without fear of recrimination and we learn to accept people's opinions that differ from ours, THEN we can rid ourselves of biases.
I disagree about the "forced to believe" part.
My beliefs are my beliefs. What I can't do is voice a number of them since they're not politically correct beliefs. I'm also not going to voice a contrarian opinion about something in a room full of people I know have a different view. No different from announcing I'm a Red Sox/Patriots fan in a New York bar.
Well, fair enough. What I mean is that here in Portland it is a violently elitist liberal city. If a store owner makes any sort of disparaging remarks about gays (for example) they lose their business and the state fines in excess of $300,000 (yes, it happens here). As a result, business owners are scared to death of voicing their beliefs on any issue (like global warming, abortion...) that may cost them their livelihood.
That's what I meant. maybe I used poorly chosen words.
Let me say this, as a person with a MA in anthropology, biases are generally a good thing. They are a cultural and genetic adaption that has proven very useful and withstood the test of time.
Let me say this, as a person with a MA in anthropology, biases are generally a good thing. They are a cultural and genetic adaption that has proven very useful and withstood the test of time.
Can you explain the genetic part of bias? I would have thought bias is close to 100% cultural/environmental.
Can you explain the genetic part of bias? I would have thought bias is close to 100% cultural/environmental.
Studies have shown infants (once they can see) react differently to various races as well as stimuli (animals). There appears to some innate markers that are not taught and are simply innate. the studies I recall (going back decades now) indicated it was no as simple as the caregiver looking a certain way race, there was predisposition to their own race as well as the race of a caregiver.
Cheers...
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