Greetings, Friendlies. :)
Is a post on Implicit Bias superfluous? (Is opening a blog post with a rhetorical question superfluous?) Everyone knows what Implicit Bias is. And it’s clear how it ties in with the interpreter module and the construction of human experience. Right?
I dunno. There was a time when I wouldn’t have used the term. Studying postmodernism and working with antiracism groups I discovered enormous gaps in my understanding. (The more I learn the more it seems like one big gap…)
From ChatGPT-4 (because more quotable than Wikipedia):
Implicit bias refers to the unconscious attitudes, stereotypes, or associations that people hold towards certain groups of people or social categories. These biases can influence behavior and decision-making without the individual being aware of them. … For example, a person might unconsciously associate certain jobs with one gender over another or might have an automatic preference for individuals of their own race without actively endorsing such views. …[implicit bias] often contributes to systemic inequality and discrimination.
Dr. Judson Brewer said, “we see the world through the lens of our previous experience.”
This “experience” comes not only from our first-hand being-in-the-world, it also comes from what we are told. Humans have been so “successful” as a species because we teach each other everything. Some of this “experience” has also been passed down genetically. (The view that tribalism is skillful, as one example.)
What we are “told” comes not just from the mouths of elders and peers, it comes from their behavior. And from the cultural landscape more broadly, movies, television, social media.
When it comes to individuals, I don’t think it’s skillful to talk about -isms. To say that a person is racist or sexist. In the light of 1, reducing avijjā and 2, reducing dukkha, I think Implicit Bias is a more useful term. Being racist is evil. Holding implicit biases is a fact of being human.
Now, we can be more or less skillful regarding our implicit biases. We can promote more or less avijjā around them. We can believe that they are more or less “true”. We can more or less understand and acknowledge their power in constructing world view. We can more or less cultivate the skillful ones and starve the unskillful ones.
Your thoughts?
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[1] Brewer, Judson A. “Feeling is believing: the convergence of Buddhist theory and modern scientific evidence supporting how self is formed and perpetuated through feeling tone (vedanā).” The Definition, Practice, and Psychology of Vedanā. Routledge, 2020. 113-126.
Dharma PhD 