This blog has talked a bit about individuality as well as advertisement and society, but something I never really touched on to any real extent was the nature of bias itself as a concept separate from ourselves.
Bias can be seen as these glasses in which we view the world. Everyone has them and can look at the same object or circumstance, but see entirely different things. Justice and science often try to view things from an objective point of view, almost like trying to see things for what they are. The problem is that human beings are not objective thinkers, but subjective by nature. By trying to view things with a completely objective point of view, we're really just trying to throw another pair of bias glasses over the pair we typically wear. The outcome is trying to combine two completely different prescriptions. It doesn't work and you look funny.
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| Exhibit A. |
That said, I think it's a safe assumption to say that human beings are biased by nature, and the easiest thing to do about this is to just accept it. It's a natural human trait, but the question is whether or not we're stuck with the same glasses forever.
There's a website I'll link to the bottom that's all about you filling out this little test to tell you what your bias is toward certain ideas (sexual preference, whether you have a nationalistic view of the world, etc.). Of course it's not meant to be a guarantee of anything by any stretch of the imagination (I know a happily married man who according to the survey is slightly gay, and I myself got that I apparently have no preference for gender) but it brings up the idea of us being ignorant to our own biases. Think about it. How often do you see someone being racist and when you mention it to them they flatout deny it?
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| Don't bother grandma, he's ignorant. |
"Your data suggests a moderate association of Male with Science and Female with Humanities compared to Female with Science and Male with Humanities."
The quiz is essentially saying that I don't agree with the feminist movement and support the idea that women don't have a place among the profession traditionally reserved for men. A bit off the deep end? Perhaps, considering the test just asked which gender I associated more with what. Still, I can't help but feel like I wasn't overly surprised... which is awful. For starters, it's not even something I feel is true; I mean men and women are different for sure, but I don't really put one above another for intelligence. They think differently. On the one hand society apparently agrees thinking this view is right, but on the other hand I have some close friends who demonstrate the opposite on a daily basis. Is my bais shaped by both sides? How can I contradict myself by believing one idea so strongly, yet have a hint of doubt?
I guess the question I poise is whether we can truly change a bias, especially if it's one you don't agree with. I like to think that we can, but we have to be smart enough to open ourselves enough to allow these changes to take root. It's not easy though, and if you close yourself off it'll never happen. If it weren't true, then society would be the same as it has been from the beginning. Despite society depicting the world as being solely male-dominated, do I think that should be the case? Hell no. It is high time for a change in favour of equality. I live by the idea of "loving to be proven wrong" because if I am, then my theory only gets stronger from adapting to the correction. This case is no exception and I encourage it because I can actually see it becoming true in the eyes of the determined people in my life. If you can believe it, you can make it true. I look forward to the day I can look back at my broken pair of glasses and laugh. If I can do it, then anyone in society can. Go ahead world. Prove me wrong.
Never stop questioning.
*Here's the link if you want to try some tests yourself*
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/canada/selectatest.jsp
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