Knee-jerk biases

[ironphoenix]

Here are six simple knee-jerk biases I try to watch for in myself:

1. If a member of a group or category I belong to does something of which I approve, my natural bias is to think that their status as a member of that group or category influenced them to do so.

2. If a member of a group or category I belong to does something of which I disapprove, my natural bias is to think that their status as a member of that group or category had little or no influence on them.

3. If a member of a group or category I don't belong to does something of which I disapprove, my natural bias is to think that their status as a member of that group or category influenced them to do so.

4. If a member of a group or category I don't belong to does something of which I approve, my natural bias is to think that their status as a member of that group or category had little or no influence on them.

5. If I do something of which I approve, my natural bias is to discount the influence of the groups or categories to which I belong.

6. If I do something of which I disapprove, my natural bias is to emphasize the influence of the groups or categories to which I belong.

Group or category membership is pretty broadly defined, and may but need not map strictly to universal labels. The important categories are those in my own head, which are partially but not completely socially defined.

These biases seem pretty much universal to me, but maybe that's a prejudice built on #6 above!

Comments

[zenten.livejournal.com]

For me it's about being a member of a group or category for which I approve, not belong.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Interesting point! The Venn diagram is hopefully a pair of concentric circles, with your category being the larger... for some, there may be no difference between the circles.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Not actually. If I find out that some fairly well off white guy does something bad I'll assume that him being a well off white guy has something to do with it.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

So are you saying that at least one of the groups {fairly well-off people}, {white people}, and/or {males} is a group of which you don't approve?

[zenten.livejournal.com]

I mean specifically the group of fairly well off white males. That's a category in my mind.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Interesting... there's a socially constructed idea for you.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Well, considering that "reasonably well off" and "white" are also social constructs...

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

I'm referring to the idea that a group to which one belongs is nevertheless suspect by default. I think this is a quite new thing, globally speaking.

[ragnhildr.livejournal.com]

Eons ago, when I was a student, I heard about an experiment in psych class. University students were randomly divided into teams--they all drew colored cards from a bowl in sight of each other, so everyone was aware that team membership was random. They participated in a number of games/competitions. At the end of it, they were all asked how they felt about their team members and about the members of the other teams according to a number of parameters. Most rated the members of their own team as more honest and more honorable than the members of the other team. This is a group membership that lasted an afternoon and that was established randomly. Everyone who participated was aware of those facts. They still majoritarily based their responses on group membership.

I try very hard to keep this in mind any time the issue of a person's membership in a group is brought up with respect to their actions.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Good demonstration, yes!

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Interesting list. Are you aware of fundamental attribution error? Seems like some of these biases might be good ways to explain it.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! I haven't given much thought in my list to situational factors beyond group membership, implicitly lumping them in with personal (uninfluenced) choice.

[foms.livejournal.com]

I thought of confirmation bias.

[foms.livejournal.com]

I think that remembering types of biases and fallacies every once in a while is a good idea.

[arndis.livejournal.com]

These do sound like variations on or relations of fundamental attribution error, and they're definitely not just you. Psychology classes and books often spend some time on them.

I'm not sure how these biases are adaptive, but on some level they may be...they've been around a long time.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

It seems like monkey-brain stuff to me...

[maltesewarrior.livejournal.com]

Weird. My 5 and 6 are converse from yours. If I do something I approve of, I generally look for people or groups who may have influenced me into doing so. If I do something I don't approve of, my natural inclination is to make sure I'm not burdening other people with my own shittiness, so I naturally de-emphasize any influence people or groups may have on me.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I guess I was raised in a fairly self-reliant, individualist way.

[maltesewarrior.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure self-reliance necessarily has anything to do with invidualism. ;) I know lots of people who are highly individualistic who couldn't navigate their way out of a box with a pair of box cutters.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not saying that individualism implies competence, whatever Heinlein may think of the matter. I was, taught? conditioned? to make my choices pretty much independently of others, and not look overmuch to others for support in my decisions.