An Anecdotal View of Bias, Cuddling a Kitten Sized Bundle of Information.

I am not going to make this a dissertation in the same way as my other "fact-rape" posts so quit rustling your jimmies as this one's pretty lax on hardcore info. I advise you read this as I think that it is very important but beware, there is no adequate synonym for the word bias so by the end you'll be wondering if it's still a word.

If you read my previous post (34 people did! ZOMG internet faymuss.) about how we are not evolved to live responsibly and efficiently in the world that we built around ourselves you may have guessed that as far as neurology goes I judge our species to be maladapted and a bit naff... or at least not as good as we believe ourselves to be. One of the things that I mentioned- I think- was bias. It is because of biases that dumb things happen and why I find myself experiencing feelings of great animosity towards politicians that cannot interpret/accept facts and figures and seem to consider being a contrarian regarding everything in an opposing parties agenda an admirable trait. Bias is why social cohesion and progress towards things that are counter-intuitively, and sadly often intuitively, beneficial to mankind are things we find so darn hard.

Bias is also how our brains simplify the world around us into a representation of events that is much more readily understood than the reality of things. It is hard to consider, and honestly evaluate opposing points of view so our brain can be thought to make analogies for all the information around us that work to composite complicated, massive volumes of information into principles that kind of outline how we should react to our reality. I make the idea of reality personal because I believe the existence of polarised opinions to be an observable measure of such a claim.

If you believe that bias is something that does not particularly marshal your life then it is not unlikely that you have just exhibited a form of bias called "Bias blind spot". This is when you are more likely to view yourself as having less cognitive biases, and view others as having more than yourself. You may have just now concluded that what I just said was wrong in which case, congratulations! You probably committed the exact same bias... maybe. As I'm sure you can see, bias makes the pursuit of truth VERY hard. "We get it, everyone is dumb. Get over it." I hear you say. I realise I am majorly dissing the human race about what seems to be petty things but please, read on.

A few years ago there was a relatively large movement to get American congress to believe in the dangers of global warming, or in fact the actual existence of man-made global warming. The method that was put into play was to gather some of the worlds best scientists to present their research to congress in the hope that each opposed congressman would see the facts and change their stance in concordance with scientific research. After the conference it was found that despite all the evidence presented that debunked false claims and replaced ignorance with information in fact galvanised the belief's of congress. Rather than change opinions in the wake of highly intelligent scientists whose job it is to research and advance their subject of expertise the opinions of the opposition were strengthened*.

People cling to ignorant beliefs such as denial of evolution, young Earth creationism, socially acceptable feelings of grandiose where existence is seen as something greatly important and other fraudulent ideas because their biases prevent them from understanding the facts that disprove their beliefs. In more arbitrary areas of life the same can be said of opinions that are of equal merit.

As I begun by stating; I shan't make this a dissertation like previous posts, where the facts and figures make my point more like a blunt object for the bludgeoning of interest than the grind stone for sharpening my argument (but believe me, I could do it if I wanted to.) I just want whoever is reading this to understand how much of our life is ruled by these snap decisions we make based on vague principals our brain synthesises for ease of processing. It is because of bias that people make stupid decisions and more importantly it is why people in positions of power make stupid decisions that matter.

I would like to close with story time. One of the most interesting things that I have ever had said to me was during a visit to Birkenau (the Auschwitz you think of when people say Auschwitz) after the main tour of Auschwitz 1. I hesitate to use cliched language to explain how big of a deal this visit was to me as words such as "powerful" or "emotional experience" are used too often to describe trivial things. Just imagine an event in your life of much intellectual and emotional gravitas and I should hope the two experiences are comparable in their magnitudes.

I think my experience there may be for another block of text- that you may be chuffed to know I probably won't write- but in response to my extreme confusion and disgust at how religion can ignore the atrocities committed, that violate the notion of their loving deity, within a negligible geographical area compared to the vastness of Earth our Polish tour guide explained it like this: "You cannot understand as you are not religious."**

I was at first angry as I interpreted it as a repackaging of the argument used by apologists who say that because I do not have faith in God I am somehow unable to fathom how such a thing may function. With some thought I realised it was much more. It was an encapsulation of the raw power of bias. The blast proof shutters that prevent you and me and everyone on Earth from being the best human beings that we can be. To be honest, it jilted me a bit.

The world needs people who know and outgrow their shortcomings in much greater ways than those bestowed admiration for the escape from poverty or the establishment of a monopoly or the chance ballsy decision that played out just right. I let my life be ruled by "Confirmation bias" and "Anchoring" and "Self-handicapping" for the preservation of ego and because doing the opposite is hard. Be better than me, spot your biases and do something about it. Be a better person, get smarter.



*It is thought that it may be because the explanation of misconceptions brings to the surface those arguments more readily than the assimilation of the information  debunking it so the placement of importance in the mind of the individual is placed disproportionately on the side of unreason. Also, please forgive my lack of citations, I was unable to find the source but if you find I have stated something wrong then please say and I will change it as fact is more important that pride. I think I was pretty accurate from memory but hey, consider this combating the "overconfidence effect"

** For the interest of context I feel I should point out that she did not believe in God. I believe partly because of the "indoctrination" of the people in communist nations and the stark parallels she said she saw between religious and political propaganda.