Setting the Mind Free from Cognitive Biases-II
Part II- Correcting biases: starting from the heart
Each one of us desires to have an unbiased and fair mind. But achieving this doesn’t happen by a mere wish, we have to work hard and earn it. Unless we make a conscious effort in correcting cognitive biases, our biases could damage our internal peace and may even lead us to conflicts.
I don’t think working on the quality of our logical arguments is the panacea to avoid biases. Logic is like a saw or hammer that could be used as a tool to do some work. A saw in a skilled carpenter hand can build a beautiful chair while in the wrong hands could even injure people. The true value lies not in the quality of the tool as much as it is in the hand holding it. I believe an important step we should take towards becoming more unbiased is to make sure that we have a good and positive emotional state when we apply logic.
Only a heart at the right state can produce an unbiased logic. It is only a loving and peaceful heart that can guarantee that the mind can produce a useful and unbiased logic. We have to first ensure that we have built a sound moral standard and emotional state before trusting the logic we are using. If one can’t feel positive about a person or a group, he/she is not qualified anymore to build any good arguments on matters that are related to that particular person or group.
Before writing an article or making a speech, we should look inwards and check the state of our hearts. A rule of thumb could be to ask am I feeling love and peace or more of anger and despise. In the latter case, I would advise keeping silent. In this state, the logic we may think is right could be deceptively wrong.
Another potential remedy against bias is trying to place oneself in the shoes of others. This is a recommendation we often hear but it is not as simple as it sounds. I am me, a different identity. How could I place myself in another person’s shoes? I believe that recognizing the difficulty of doing that qualifies as one key step in the process. And still, we could benefit by trying to do that. For instance, if you belong to an ethnic group, try to understand what it means to be in another ethnic identity.
In politics, the political opinions of many scholars are often highly correlated to their ethnic identities. Sometimes, politics seems to be run by a molecule (oxytocin) than rational thought. It is vital for each of us to put ourselves in the shoes of others’ identities and try to imagine how our opinions might change. We can benefit a lot by reading about and talking with people of different identities and truly understand their world. Let’s work towards consciously correcting our perceptions and enjoy many aha moments.
A helpful technique in reducing biases could also be to view our ideas as potentially true but not necessarily complete without the contribution of others. For instance when one sees a card box, if he/she is a mathematician he/she may think about its geometrical characteristics. But a forester may worry more about whether it was sustainably produced or not. Still for another person, the brand on the box is more important than the object itself. Even in such a simple example, we can see that even if all the three individuals are likely to be right in their views, none of their views alone gives a complete picture. When we also try to understand sensitive topics in politics and history, it is worth remembering this. Here, diversifying our media by not restricting ourselves to only a few which support our preexisting opinions is vital.
Conclusions
Many more remedies could be suggested; what I have mentioned are only a few of them. The most important point here is recognizing that we have a tendency to make biased views, and we need to make a conscious effort to correct them. Just because we could make seemingly strong logical arguments doesn’t mean that our view is sound and complete. It should also be underscored that a positive state of mind is a prerequisite for sound logical arguments. I like to finish this article with an alarming statement by T-Bag, a character on Prison Break (a TV series), “We are captives of our own identities, living in prisons of our own creations.”
