Bias, Prejudice, Discrimination

January 10, 2015.

Bias is a negative term. When we hear the word we assume it’s a very bad thing. Prejudice and discrimination carry the same negative connotation. The truth is, we are all biased. It’s part of human nature. We, as humans, are all a little prejudiced and we all discriminate a lot. It makes us more efficient as human beings, but creates problems when we trust in them too much.

If my family met another family at the airport while waiting for a flight they would make a lot of quick assumptions about us and treat us according to those assumptions. The man would most likely favor me in conversation assuming we’d have more in common and the woman would favor my wife. The kids would gravitate toward our kids that are closest in age and gender. We’d tend to trust people more that we have the most in common with.

The man might try to talk to me about a football game assuming I follow sports. That’s a mild form of prejudice that would usually serve him well, but he’d be mistaken with me. Discovering I care nothing for professional sports his prejudicial bias may cause him to assume I’m out of touch or not very masculine. He’d be way off-base there, but that bias may be correct in most cases. If I told him I was a retired USAF physicist he might assume that I’m intelligent and patriotic. In those assumptions he’d be correct. He may then discriminate in my favor and treat me with heightened respect.

The woman’s biases may cause her to assume I’m not as involved in caring for our kids as Amanda is just because I'm a man. She might learn from Amanda that we’re Christians and assume a lot of favorable characteristics if she’s a Christian too.

The children would probably assume that Amanda and I don’t know much about the music they like and probably don’t appreciate it. They’d be correct. So they might talk about their favorite musicians with our kids.

When we pre-judge people and discriminate according to our personal biases it makes human interaction with people we don’t know more efficient most of the time. As we learn more about people we don’t have to make as many biased assumptions because we know them personally. Most biases are lightly held and quickly dismissed when we learn the truth. When people hold steadfastly to biases even in the face of contrary evidence it becomes a problem. These stubborn biases create the negative behaviors we associate with racism and sexist treatment.

Even stubborn biases come in a variety of flavors.

• Awestruck-bias means you elevate a group of people to a level of worship. Kids often do this to musicians, actors, professional athletes, etc. The natives of Central and South America reacted with this type of bias to the first Europeans. They’d never seen people with white skin or horses before and erroneously assumed they were gods.
• Admire Bias sets a group of people up for automatic admiration simply for being a member of the group. People assume a form of superiority in the group without necessarily elevating them to worship status. Many people hold such a favorable view of the Amish. They assume all Amish people are simple, forgiving, and happy. Maybe on average this is true, but it’s not true for every member. Young children tend to look at teenagers with misplaced admiration assuming they are all smart, athletic, stylish, etc.
• No Bias is the rare condition of truly treating everyone equal. With effort we can get close to this, but I’m not sure it’s possible for any human being to really remove all their biases.
• Preferential Bias leads us to give preferential treatment to a group even though they aren’t superior or more deserving. I tend to admire women and give them favorable treatment over men. I seemed to be hardwired with that bias and I can’t turn it off.
• Practical Bias assumes no sense of superiority or inferiority in a group but simply treats them different for practical reasons. An example is expecting women and men to use different rest rooms. It’s a simple, practical form of privacy and modesty preferred between the sexes. This is clearly distinct from racial restroom segregation where separate bathrooms were required because one group was considered beneath the other. Another example of practical bias are the laws prohibiting children from driving because their immaturity makes them hazardous. Some young children may be more capable of driving safely that the average adult, but we discriminate against all children as a matter of practical safety because it’s too difficult to evaluate them all individually.
• Hate Bias occurs when members of a group are despised simply for being a member of the group. This form of bias can drive people to kill strangers just for who they are. It can make people inflict pain with no justification beyond membership in the group. People with this bias might enjoy watching members of their despised group suffer. Hate bias can drive groups to extreme evil such as genocide.
• Superiority Bias happens when groups of people think they are superior to others without necessarily hating them. People with hate bias usually have a superiority bias also, but you can have a superiority bias without hate. People with superiority bias can actually be fond of the group they discriminate against, such as American abolitionists who cared about the welfare of American slaves and fought for the end of slavery but still believed that white people were superior.

When Americans use terms like prejudice, discriminate, and bias they are usually thinking of the most despicable of all biases, hate. This flawed, emotional response limits our ability to discuss controversial issues. We often perceive bias in people we disagree with but are blind to our own biases. In order to disagree more respectfully we need to understand the range of biases. We need to consider our own bias critically and objectively while being slow to harshly judge those we disagree with.