ironphoenix: (so deep)
ironphoenix ([personal profile] ironphoenix) wrote2010-10-22 03:35 pm
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Knee-jerk biases

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!

[identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com 2010-10-22 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] zenten.livejournal.com 2010-10-22 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com 2010-10-22 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
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?

[identity profile] zenten.livejournal.com 2010-10-22 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I mean specifically the group of fairly well off white males. That's a category in my mind.

[identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com 2010-10-22 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting... there's a socially constructed idea for you.

[identity profile] zenten.livejournal.com 2010-10-22 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, considering that "reasonably well off" and "white" are also social constructs...

[identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com 2010-10-23 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
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.