Why does humanity overwhelmingly support bias?

The first rule in critical thinking as I understand it is to eliminate bias. Why? Bias is a barrier to truth. As a rule, one cannot find the best solution or the best answer or get as close as possible to the truth while being biased.

When I claim that humanity overwhelmingly supports bias (and that it in the process keeps us from progressing), we could talk about lots of different institutions that do it in various ways including the institutions of education and medicine.

In this post I want to focus on the two main ways bias is supported by the human race:

1. Culture

The belief that culture is worth anything is almost entirely based on a logical fallacy called appeal to tradition.

2. Religion

Religion is almost entirely based on a logical fallacy called appeal to faith.

You cannot engage in critical thinking while simultaneously relying on fallacies. I realize that there have been benefits for humanity to support biases such as the examples above in the past. I wrote about that in the following thread:

Delusion was once a beneficial trait for natural selection, IT ISN'T ANYMORE

Consider this:

Earth is on brink of a sixth mass extinction, scientists say, and it’s humans’ fault

It seems apparent to me that if humanity doesn't get past its biases and CHANGE in a huge positive way, we're headed for a future that nobody could possibly want.

Our biases are keeping us from having a chance to do that. Why does humanity overwhelmingly support bias?

a reply to: Profusion
The answer to your question can be found in psychology textbooks. What you call bias probably has a lot to do with the way we categorise people and other things we see around us. Yes it has a lot to do with culture and religion but also the person's experiences as well. This has been investigated in research. We cannot change the way we categorise things very easily without some kind of therapy as pathways in our minds have been created. The thing is to understand that EVERYONE has biases including yourself and to work with this concept in mind. I agree with what you say about religion and culture especially in regard to collectivist type cultures.

a reply to: Profusion

Look at ATS Pro. This place screams out loud that the whole problem is THEIR Biases, not mine. I can see things clearly and they can't, they are deluded, they are brainwashed . Not me. Not us,

originally posted by: grumpy64
a reply to: Profusion
The answer to your question can be found in psychology textbooks. What you call bias probably has a lot to do with the way we categorise people and other things we see around us. Yes it has a lot to do with culture and religion but also the person's experiences as well. This has been investigated in research. We cannot change the way we categorise things very easily without some kind of therapy as pathways in our minds have been created. The thing is to understand that EVERYONE has biases including yourself and to work with this concept in mind. I agree with what you say about religion and culture especially in regard to collectivist type cultures.

Are there answers in psychology textbooks for things like these?

1. An atheist calls someone a "bigot" for speaking out against Christianity.

Mainstream Christianity is so full of contradictions that I would say it has to be opposed by any rational person. What psychologically would cause an atheist to call someone a "bigot" for speaking out against Christianity?

2. Why did President Obama say "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."?

50 Reasons Muhammad Was Not a Prophet

I can assure you that Obama said that for political reasons, not psychological reasons. The point is, it's a perfect example of humanity's support of bias that only hurts humanity and will potentially lead to our ruin. Supporting this kind of stuff is madness IMHO.

3. US Armed Forces Ordered to Ignore Rampant Muslim Sexual Abuse of Boys

I believe the reason the US military is ordering that is political, not psychology. It's just another example of the backwardness (and in this case abject evil) involved in supporting bias that doesn't make any sense in the big picture IMHO.

I could go on citing those kinds of examples but I hope you see what I'm getting at. I'm trying to go beyond the realm of psychology textbooks here.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: Profusion

Look at ATS Pro. This place screams out loud that the whole problem is THEIR Biases, not mine. I can see things clearly and they can't, they are deluded, they are brainwashed . Not me. Not us,

Right and after years of debating (or attempting to debate) with people on these sites, again and again, I see that their belief systems usually evaporate into nothing when you get past a very thin veneer. On the whole, when you strip that veneer away, they don't care and they go right on their merry way.

I'm thinking more and more that the change needed for humanity to survive is never coming. It seems to be beyond our collective capacity.

reply to: Profusion

You mistake your rationality, for some sort of average, or mean, for the common human. We are a great species, overall. However, most of us are by far, not all that rational.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Well said. Most will not get it though.

originally posted by: Enderdog
reply to: Profusion

You mistake your rationality, for some sort of average, or mean, for the common human. We are a great species, overall. However, most of us are by far, not all that rational.

What in the original post was about me personally?

What I wrote was just an application of basic critical thinking. Are you claiming that the average person isn't capable of basic critical thinking?

If so, what's your source for that assertion?

The original post was an application of what came directly out of a basic critical thinking textbook. If you have the ability to graduate from high school in a first world country, you could ace basic critical thinking such as what I wrote about in the original post.

What is this double standard where people recognize that you have to have a decent amount of intelligence to graduate from high school in a first world country, but then they insinuate or state outright that the average person is brain dead. The graduation rates in the USA and Canada are over 80%.

I'm telling you that anyone who can graduate from a high school in those countries can master basic critical thinking such as what I wrote about in the original post.

I believe most of our biases are created through experience, sort of like an extra thin film that covers our perspective and just becomes thicker the more negative experiences we have. I also believe people will pick up biases from others they respect.

Keep a clean head folks, and don't let the crap of the world give you a murky perspective.

originally posted by: Profusion
Why does humanity overwhelmingly support bias?

Fear.

People are afraid of getting scorned upon, hated, kicked out of their close team, humiliated until they are vindicated.

They would rather become one of the human Borg, than to speak out against the norm simply because they are afraid of being lonely when their previous friends stab-them-in-the-back.

It is not possible to eliminate bias. Pure objectivity is impossible. We can try our best to get as close to objectivity as we can, but never be free of perspective. Human beings see through their own position and being.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Look at ATS Pro.

what's that ? I just come here and refresh the "recent" button.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
Look at ATS Pro.

originally posted by: MarioOnTheFly

what's that ? I just come here and refresh the "recent" button.

He was addressing member Profusion (Pro for short)

[edit] He could just as well have said "Look at ATS, girl."


Mike Grouchy

a reply to: mikegrouchy

hmmm...now I have to look up Profusion...

a reply to: Profusion

The original post was an application of what came directly out of a basic critical thinking textbook.

Wait , what? Isnt the mere action of learning "critical thinking" by taking something directly from a textbook the antithesis of critical thinking ?

a reply to: Profusion

There are some great replies in this thread that have covered all the bases in one way or another.

One idea is that we're information processors and creators. It means we automatically react to every single stimulus whether we're consciously aware of them or not. Some of the bias is hard wired like aversions to faeces or very hot objects. The bias against certain politics is subtly inculcated through parents and people from infancy. The bias towards branded beans or blondes/blonds over brunettes is cultural as well as subjective.

What I'm offering there is that conscious, subjective biases are coming from the same place as the more hard-wired biases. I believe we can reduce bias by being aware of our thoughts and being informed about our influences. What we can't do is remove all bias and become utterly neutral.

a reply to: Profusion

Very intelligent question.

Why does humanity overwhelmingly support bias?

Is, those that are born leaders and those that are born followers,

Is not that some people are more intelligent than others, but in todays society in wish most humans are under the influences of medications, stress and propaganda, the mind tends to get dump out to the point that is easily manipulated by those that knows how to pull the strings.

Religion, governments and entities knows how to do that, social media, internet, TV, are all full of those that their agenda is to create social issues and manipulate people into acting, in certain ways.

We have been manipulated more than ever life is not peachy anymore, people are getting out of control and they don't really know why.

originally posted by: Profusion
I'm thinking more and more that the change needed for humanity to survive is never coming. It seems to be beyond our collective capacity.

Then what better than a few nukes, some 'long winters', plague, some people vaporize, many die soon after... and, before you know it, we have a whole new "collective" with entirely new "capacity"! *__-
And from this new soil, Love will grow!
Universal enlightenment/unconditional Love!
But there needs to be a huge 'DNA' redistribution pattern, first...

originally posted by: Profusion
Why does humanity overwhelmingly support bias?

That is because 'bias' is who and what we are! Ego!
We are also ALL unique Perspectives of the One (unchanging, ALL inclusive) Universal Reality!
Every Perspective is unique!
That is a natural 'bias'!
Every single Perspective is equally unique, equally 'biased'!

Every Perspective is unique every moment!

"For every Perspective, there is an equal and opposite Perspective!" - The First Law of Soul Dynamics (Book of Fudd)

"The acceptance and understanding of other Perspectives furthers our acquaintance with Reality!"

"The complete Universe (Reality/Truth/God/'Self!'/Tao/Brahman... or any feature herein...) can be completely defined/described as the synchronous sum-total of all Perspectives!" - Book of Fudd
ALL INCLUSIVE!!!

The first rule in critical thinking as I understand it is to eliminate bias.

It is 'critical thought' that makes clear the utter necessity of 'bias' in Knowing Reality!
Without 'bias', there would be no distinction between anything and anything!
Reality remains the unknowable transcendental Cloud, without the severe limitations in any Perspective/Soul at any moment.

Why? Bias is a barrier to truth. As a rule, one cannot find the best solution or the best answer or get as close as possible to the truth while being biased.

Truth (which is ALL inclusive) can ONLY be Known by 'bias', the natural limitations of the unique momentary Perspective.
Insanity is in 'believing' (anything!) your 'bias' (view of the world) to be the Truth and all other different Perspectives are, somehow, 'wrong/evil/bad'!

Thought is dualistic that What Is can be Known, but that Which is Known, is not 'dualistic', but One!
So it is 'make-believe', our Universe, 'bias' in every Perspective, but put them all together...!

"The complete Universe (Reality/Truth/God/'Self!'/Tao/Brahman... or any feature herein...) can be completely defined/described as the synchronous sum-total of all Perspectives!"

There is only One Universal Consciousness to Know!

a reply to: Profusion

Critical thinking is often more time comsuming and taxing on our limited mental resources. We are cognitive misers prone to relying on heuristics & attributional biases just to cut through the mass of stimuli we are immersed in daily.


If you interested you should check out the work of psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

Emotion