The science of implicit bias and empathy
Mahzarin Banaji, the featured guest of Krista Tippett on June 9, 2016 “is Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the department of psychology at Harvard University. She is the co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, and co-founder of the implicit bias research organization Project Implicit.” (onbeing.org transcript of this conversation),
Dr. Banaji is:
Those who read this blog on a regular basis know that I am a huge fan of the program “On Being” and, in fact depend on it to weekly stimulate my mind. The guests with whom Ms. Tippett has stimulating conversations always make me think about a variety of issues – often make me question everything I think I know. Dr. Banaji is no exception because:
Dr. Banaji says:
“I don’t want people to not learn from guilt and not learn from shame. I think those are powerful motives. They have made us, in large part, the more civilized people we are. But I do believe that, in our culture and in many cultures, we are at a point where our conscious minds are so ahead of our less conscious minds. We must recognize that, and yet, ask people the question, “Are you the good person you yourself want to be?” And the answer to that is no, you’re not. And that’s just a fact. And we need to deal with that if we want to be on the path of self-improvement.”
In this brief statement she is making an observation and/or assumption, party based on her religious beliefs and partly based on her work in the emerging science of implicit bias.
First, it might be interesting to very briefly review some of the history and core beliefs of the Zoroastrians.
Of the history, Dr. Banaji reminds us:
Zoroastrianism is probably the world’s oldest monotheistic religion. It predates Judaism by about 1,500 years, some scholars will argue. And it’s a religion that actually dominated much of Central Asia for many centuries. And it seems like we’re about 80,000 or so in the world.
Some of their core beliefs according to bb.co.uk are:
Cosmic dualism
Cosmic dualism refers to the ongoing battle between Good (Ahura Mazda) and Evil (Angra Mainyu) within the universe.
It is important to understand that Angra Mainyu is not God's equal opposite, rather that Angra Mainyu is the destructive energy that opposes God's creative energy. This creative energy is called Spenta Mainyu. God created a pure world through his creative energy, which Angra Mainyu continues to attack, making it impure. Aging, sickness, famine, natural disasters, death and so on are attributed to this.
Moral dualism
Moral dualism refers to the opposition of good and evil in the mind of mankind. God's gift to man was free will; therefore man has the choice to follow the path of Evil (druj - deceit) or the path of Righteousness (asha - truth). The path of Evil leads to misery and ultimately Hell. The path of Righteousness leads to peace and everlasting happiness in Heaven.
As with cosmic dualism, we have the polarity of happiness and sadness, truth and deception and so on but with an emphasis on choice. This choice is crucial as it determines whether we are the helper of Ahura Mazda or the helper of Angra Mainyu. When all of mankind chooses the former over the latter, evil will finally be defeated and Paradise on earth will be realized.
Daily prayers
Zoroastrian beliefs can best be summed up by the maxim:
Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
Good Thoghts, Good Words, Good Deed
Zoroastrians try to live their daily lives by this creed.
At the age of seven, Zoroastrians are given a sudreh (shirt) and kusti (cord) as part of an initiation ceremony. These garments are considered sacred. They tie the kusti around the sudreh three times to remind themselves of 'Good Words, Good Thoughts, and Good Deeds'.
From then on, Zoroastrians traditionally perform this ritual with prayers several times a day.
Man and God
Unlike some religions where man is God's child or servant, in Zoroastrianism man is considered more as God's helper. Through man's positive choices, evil will be eradicated and God's Paradise on Earth will be established.
Men and women, rich and poor, and young and old are all seen as equal. One only surpasses the other through their righteousness.
Hopefully, these few facts about this ancient religion tell one that:
“Good thoughts, good words, good deed.” This goal seems to say all that is important. The more aware I am of my conscious and implicit (unconscious) thoughts and associations the more I can choose language which results in good deeds – in treating myself, mother earth and others as sacred (with loving respect). The problem, as Dr. Banaji and her colleagues continue to document is that we are often unaware of our learned biases. If we are unaware of them we cannot change them. For example Dr. Banaji recounts a well-known riddle of the father and his son being involved in an accident which kills the father and acutely injures the son. The surgeon is ready to operate on the child, but recognizes the child and says, “I cannot operate on this child. It is my son.” The riddle asks, “How is this possible? The father just died.” Many, many people will not be able to accurately solve this riddle. Most of us will guess that the father who died was the biological father and the surgeon the adopted father (or vice versa). Even women whose mother is a surgeon will miss the obvious answer that the surgeon is the mother of the child.
Project implicit, a project of Harvard University, is a series of implicit associate tests which help one identify some of their implicit assumptions or biases. The areas in which one may decide to test oneself include:
Sexuality
Gender-Career
Native American
Age
Gender-Science
Weapons
Disability
Skin-tone
Arab-Muslim
Weight
Religion
Race
Presidents
Asian-American
Copyright © Project Implicit (Anyone can be directed to the web site and take the exams but the project details including the detailed above lists are copyrighted)
Knowing what I know about the depth and extent of my own biases I was not surprised, after taking some of the tests, that I retain a number of biases. One of my biases has been that I have made more progress than I have in identifying and letting go of them. Obviously, there is no danger of me finishing this work anytime soon.
Of course, I must again remind myself (and the reader) that the goal is to move forward in my growth and not engage in dualistic judging of the results. In other words, if I avoid labeling the results of my new discoveries about my biases as good or bad, I will avoid triggering guilt reactions and spending time and energy beating up on myself or grieving my seemingly lack of progress in becoming the person I want to be. I am where I am today which does not necessarily determine where I can be later today or tomorrow.
“Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” I am thinking that would be a good mantra with which to begin each day. This will also help me be intentional about identifying more of the biases which keep me from being empathetic – from being connected in a loving acknowledgment of our “we”.
Written June 11, 2016
Mahzarin Banaji, the featured guest of Krista Tippett on June 9, 2016 “is Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the department of psychology at Harvard University. She is the co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, and co-founder of the implicit bias research organization Project Implicit.” (onbeing.org transcript of this conversation),
Dr. Banaji is:
- Female
- A professor at Harvard
- A person whose name will often be associated with being “the other”.
- A Zoroastrian
- Self-reflective
- An immigrant
Those who read this blog on a regular basis know that I am a huge fan of the program “On Being” and, in fact depend on it to weekly stimulate my mind. The guests with whom Ms. Tippett has stimulating conversations always make me think about a variety of issues – often make me question everything I think I know. Dr. Banaji is no exception because:
- Her work on implicit associations challenges me to learn more about the subject and my own biases.
- Her heritage as a Zoroastrian reintroduced me to some theological concepts from a new perspective.
- She clearly has the courage to be more than an academic. She strives to live what she teaches.
- I would love the opportunity to share a meal and a conversation.
Dr. Banaji says:
“I don’t want people to not learn from guilt and not learn from shame. I think those are powerful motives. They have made us, in large part, the more civilized people we are. But I do believe that, in our culture and in many cultures, we are at a point where our conscious minds are so ahead of our less conscious minds. We must recognize that, and yet, ask people the question, “Are you the good person you yourself want to be?” And the answer to that is no, you’re not. And that’s just a fact. And we need to deal with that if we want to be on the path of self-improvement.”
In this brief statement she is making an observation and/or assumption, party based on her religious beliefs and partly based on her work in the emerging science of implicit bias.
First, it might be interesting to very briefly review some of the history and core beliefs of the Zoroastrians.
Of the history, Dr. Banaji reminds us:
Zoroastrianism is probably the world’s oldest monotheistic religion. It predates Judaism by about 1,500 years, some scholars will argue. And it’s a religion that actually dominated much of Central Asia for many centuries. And it seems like we’re about 80,000 or so in the world.
Some of their core beliefs according to bb.co.uk are:
Cosmic dualism
Cosmic dualism refers to the ongoing battle between Good (Ahura Mazda) and Evil (Angra Mainyu) within the universe.
It is important to understand that Angra Mainyu is not God's equal opposite, rather that Angra Mainyu is the destructive energy that opposes God's creative energy. This creative energy is called Spenta Mainyu. God created a pure world through his creative energy, which Angra Mainyu continues to attack, making it impure. Aging, sickness, famine, natural disasters, death and so on are attributed to this.
Moral dualism
Moral dualism refers to the opposition of good and evil in the mind of mankind. God's gift to man was free will; therefore man has the choice to follow the path of Evil (druj - deceit) or the path of Righteousness (asha - truth). The path of Evil leads to misery and ultimately Hell. The path of Righteousness leads to peace and everlasting happiness in Heaven.
As with cosmic dualism, we have the polarity of happiness and sadness, truth and deception and so on but with an emphasis on choice. This choice is crucial as it determines whether we are the helper of Ahura Mazda or the helper of Angra Mainyu. When all of mankind chooses the former over the latter, evil will finally be defeated and Paradise on earth will be realized.
Daily prayers
Zoroastrian beliefs can best be summed up by the maxim:
Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
Good Thoghts, Good Words, Good Deed
Zoroastrians try to live their daily lives by this creed.
At the age of seven, Zoroastrians are given a sudreh (shirt) and kusti (cord) as part of an initiation ceremony. These garments are considered sacred. They tie the kusti around the sudreh three times to remind themselves of 'Good Words, Good Thoughts, and Good Deeds'.
From then on, Zoroastrians traditionally perform this ritual with prayers several times a day.
Man and God
Unlike some religions where man is God's child or servant, in Zoroastrianism man is considered more as God's helper. Through man's positive choices, evil will be eradicated and God's Paradise on Earth will be established.
Men and women, rich and poor, and young and old are all seen as equal. One only surpasses the other through their righteousness.
Hopefully, these few facts about this ancient religion tell one that:
- We humans have been exploring how to be good people for a very long time.
- The core goals in terms of behavior are, for the most part, consistent with later religions with which we may be more familiar – Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Muslimism among others.
- It is important to remind ourselves (certainly it is important to remind myself) that how words are used varies and, if not careful, I will not hear or recognize what I have in common because of my conscious or unconscious/implicit biases with certain words or concepts. For example, my goals from a Buddhist perspective is to let go of dualism. I also do not relate to or use the term evil. Yet, when I read about how these terms are used by the Zoroastrians there is no conflict between my understanding of Buddhist and Zoroastrians.
- Although there are differences between the beliefs of the Zoroastrians which would be interesting to explore those differences do not affect what I can learn from them or from the scientific work of Dr. Banaji and her colleagues.
“Good thoughts, good words, good deed.” This goal seems to say all that is important. The more aware I am of my conscious and implicit (unconscious) thoughts and associations the more I can choose language which results in good deeds – in treating myself, mother earth and others as sacred (with loving respect). The problem, as Dr. Banaji and her colleagues continue to document is that we are often unaware of our learned biases. If we are unaware of them we cannot change them. For example Dr. Banaji recounts a well-known riddle of the father and his son being involved in an accident which kills the father and acutely injures the son. The surgeon is ready to operate on the child, but recognizes the child and says, “I cannot operate on this child. It is my son.” The riddle asks, “How is this possible? The father just died.” Many, many people will not be able to accurately solve this riddle. Most of us will guess that the father who died was the biological father and the surgeon the adopted father (or vice versa). Even women whose mother is a surgeon will miss the obvious answer that the surgeon is the mother of the child.
Project implicit, a project of Harvard University, is a series of implicit associate tests which help one identify some of their implicit assumptions or biases. The areas in which one may decide to test oneself include:
Sexuality
Gender-Career
Native American
Age
Gender-Science
Weapons
Disability
Skin-tone
Arab-Muslim
Weight
Religion
Race
Presidents
Asian-American
Copyright © Project Implicit (Anyone can be directed to the web site and take the exams but the project details including the detailed above lists are copyrighted)
Knowing what I know about the depth and extent of my own biases I was not surprised, after taking some of the tests, that I retain a number of biases. One of my biases has been that I have made more progress than I have in identifying and letting go of them. Obviously, there is no danger of me finishing this work anytime soon.
Of course, I must again remind myself (and the reader) that the goal is to move forward in my growth and not engage in dualistic judging of the results. In other words, if I avoid labeling the results of my new discoveries about my biases as good or bad, I will avoid triggering guilt reactions and spending time and energy beating up on myself or grieving my seemingly lack of progress in becoming the person I want to be. I am where I am today which does not necessarily determine where I can be later today or tomorrow.
“Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” I am thinking that would be a good mantra with which to begin each day. This will also help me be intentional about identifying more of the biases which keep me from being empathetic – from being connected in a loving acknowledgment of our “we”.
Written June 11, 2016
RSS Feed