Bias

Delirium

I've a question about bias, and how not to let yourself be ruled by it. I was wondering what pointers could give to someone looking to examine their own biases. I'd also be interested in how you can get past a bias you might have to certain subjects.

Recommendations on articles/books would be appreciated if anyone has any suggestions.

I'd recommend two books, both being non-technical, engrossing, and enjoyable to read.

The first is Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, which is an examination of our modes of thinking. Kahneman suggests that we have two modes of thinking; one is fast, based on instinct and emotion; the other is slower and more contemplative, based on reason and logic. Cognitive biases concerned with each mode of thought are discussed, using both Kahneman's research and the research of others as a basis. It's a very enjoyable book from a very competent author: Kahneman has won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research.

The second is David McRaney's You Are Not So Smart, a book inspired by his brilliant website of the same name. Have a read of a few of the articles on his website. If you find the articles enjoyable you'll enjoy the book; the book is composed of similar articles (each one forming a chapter), though there are far more of them and each chapter is considerably longer than the equivalent online version. This book is an altogether lighter read than Kahneman's. It's not a book suggesting something new or ground breaking, but instead a summation or, I suppose, dictionary of the most common cognitive biases affecting our thought.

It's worth noting that both of these are more psychological than philosophical in nature. Perhaps somebody else can suggest something relevant with a more philosophical underpinning.

18AD

koth wrote: »

I've a question about bias, and how not to let yourself be ruled by it. I was wondering what pointers could give to someone looking to examine their own biases. I'd also be interested in how you can get past a bias you might have to certain subjects.

Recommendations on articles/books would be appreciated if anyone has any suggestions.

Something I have been meaning to read for too long:
Gadamer's idea that you cannot ever escape having biases, or prejudices, as he calls them. For him they aren't solely a negative quality inhibiting "objective" analysis but are the very thing that allow you to understand something. Prejudices are your foot in the door of a subject. They are positive things as well! The very act of pursuing a subject further means you have assumed that it is something that can be understood. You already have some basic pre-understanding of it.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gadamer/#PosPre

He takes this from Heidegger's concept of fore-thought. If you consider at a basic level, and I don't do the idea justice here, that every time you read a book, or your reading of this very post you are going to take and remember certain bits of it and not others. That is because of your fore-structure of thought that you aren't particularly "aware" of. In this specific sense of, what you may or may not mean, bias is an inescapable structure of perception and judgement.



Then you have the more literary approach, of which I'm only slightly familiar, is Ricoeur.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/ricoeur/#H5

He's saying that your perception is actually already structured as a narrative. You already make sense of the world around you by how it fits in with your narrative. Another way to put it is that you wouldn't be able to perceive the world if you couldn't narrate it. (Now that I say it, it seems suspect, but possibly misrepresentative anyway!)



In my own experience the best way to figure out your prejudices is to read more and find out what other people are saying on a subject. I'm always shocked to find the amount of stuff I have read and simply take for granted or agree with simply because of its emotional or rhetorical beauty.

Black Swan

koth wrote: »

I've a question about bias, and how not to let yourself be ruled by it. I was wondering what pointers could give to someone looking to examine their own biases. I'd also be interested in how you can get past a bias you might have to certain subjects.

Max Weber in Economy and Society cautions that no one is value free; i.e., that we are all biased to some extent, and that such values affect how we perceive the world.

When Weber categorizes rationality, he notes the dynamic between value rational and instrumental rational, the last being the most efficient and effective way to reach an objective, which may or may not be in opposition to values. This dynamic raises the issue (among others), do the ends justify the means?

Awareness of potential bias (e.g., values) is a place to begin.

Staedtler

koth wrote: »

I've a question about bias, and how not to let yourself be ruled by it. I was wondering what pointers could give to someone looking to examine their own biases. I'd also be interested in how you can get past a bias you might have to certain subjects.

Recommendations on articles/books would be appreciated if anyone has any suggestions.

I infer from your question that you are not seeking an academic hypothesis.

Practicably, an honest investigation into one particular instance of prejudicial thinking (bias) will require the investigator (you) to embark on a journey of complete self-deconstruction.

Are you sure you want to do this?

Would you not be better served to keep your societal conditioning and biases?

What good could come of it?

What, in particular, is bothering you?

Delirium

Thanks for the suggestions of reading material everyone

Black Swan wrote: »

Max Weber in Economy and Society cautions that no one is value free; i.e., that we are all biased to some extent, and that such values affect how we perceive the world.

When Weber categorizes rationality, he notes the dynamic between value rational and instrumental rational, the last being the most efficient and effective way to reach an objective, which may or may not be in opposition to values. This dynamic raises the issue (among others), do the ends justify the means?

Awareness of potential bias (e.g., values) is a place to begin.

That actually goes some way to helping me explain myself better. Becoming self aware of potential bias is essentially I'm looking to examine/read up on. I don't have any knowledge on philosophy, just a non-academic person who has recently become curious about the subject, so all help/pointers are appreciated.

Staedtler wrote: »

I infer from your question that you are not seeking an academic hypothesis.

Practicably, an honest investigation into one particular instance of prejudicial thinking (bias) will require the investigator (you) to embark on a journey of complete self-deconstruction.

Are you sure you want to do this?

I honestly know nothing about the subject so I don't know if good/bad idea. Right now I just looking to read a bit on the subject.

Would you not be better served to keep your societal conditioning and biases?

What good could come of it?

What, in particular, is bothering you?

Nothing is bothering me. The topic has just become something that I'm curious about investigating. I don't have an end goal in mind.