People Rely on Biases Due to Social Pressures and Instinct
Survival and instinct promote emotions or perceptions that produce prejudice, mental judgments or categorizations that create stereotypes, and judgmental behaviors that create discrimination. These are the results of bias which can cause a variety of benefits and punishments for individuals in a society that may or may not deserve these actions.
Prejudices and stereotypes are based on natural instinct while discrimination is a matter of choice by choosing to act on a prejudice or bias.
According to the psychology researcher David Buss, the reason why stereotyping and prejudices are part of a survival mechanism is because evolutionary theory shows how “psychological adaptations also include many traits that improve people’s ability to live in groups, such as the desire to cooperate and make friends, or the inclination to spot and avoid frauds, punish rivals, establish status hierarchies, nurture children, and help genetic relatives.”
Error management theory results in a person having to make a quick decision based on one’s own biases in hopes of avoiding an error or danger.
As revealed by David Buss, sexual strategies theory clarifies that biases are necessary when choosing partners biases, especially for long-term relationships, since males prefer females of beauty and youth while females prefer men of wealth and strength.
Kokko and Jennions state that sexual selection theory involves sexual conflict as each sex competes with each other in order to mate with the opposite sex and breed, but females tend to have more control over mating and parenting. These theories prove that humans are innately prone to stereotyping and prejudices in order to avoid physical, relationship, and mating complications that are unhealthy or socially unsuitable.
Rational Biases
Paul Bloom begins his Ted talk with the statement that “prejudice and bias are natural, they’re often rational, and they’re often even moral, and I think that once we understand this, we’re in a better position to make sense of them when they go wrong, when they have horrible consequences, and we’re in a better position to know what to do when this happens.” The reason that biases can be rational, and moral, is because positive biases may create favor towards oneself, family, and social group. On the other hand, people who are strangers or add no emotional or financial benefit may be viewed with more negative biases.
Prejudices and stereotypes can result in in-group and out-group separation where those in the out-group are entirely ignored if not punished for being different. Mid-speech, he quotes Stalin with “‘A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic” because just as someone is likely to judge a whole group of people negatively from one interaction or difference, a person may completely come to view someone with empathy and decide to give some form of aid after changing their preconceived notions.
At one point he mentions how the first half of the Bible teaches one to love their neighbor while the second half commands one to love the enemy, but Paul Bloom believes the focus should be on impartial human rights that do not necessitate love.
Because prejudices and stereotypes are a mixture of emotions and thoughts that lack conclusive evidence, people must pause and analyze whether a belief or action is rational. The goal is not to eliminate feelings and instincts — they can be as healthy and negative as some dispassionate decisions can be indirectly kind or cruel — but people can avoid dehumanizing others by balancing emotions and logic.
Cultural Influences on Bias
Culture and learning play a role in prejudices, stereotyping, and racism because external factors, such as religion, the news media, social media sites, pop culture, politics and government action, and educational institutions do play a role in stereotypes and discrimination. Whatever norms are considered ideal will be expressed in the laws that are passed, entertainment that is publicized, opinions expressed on social media platforms, and religious and educational institutions will promote certain values over others.
A more collectivist culture may endorse prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination that favor group benefits while an individualist culture will only endorse biases that continue the benefits of individualism — this results in discrimination towards rebels in a collectivist culture while individualist cultures discriminate against groups of people who disagree with the acceptance of every action that they may consider wrong.
This can relate to how conservative or liberal a society is because right-wing cultures will attempt to ban anything that does not follow certain traditions while left-wing cultures will attempt to ban anything that disagrees with abstract and ambivalent ideals.
The psychology professors Robert Biswas-Diener and Neil Thin explain that three main factors will impact implicit and explicit biases: enculturation or what is taught by parents and teachers, way of life or what is taught based on ethnicity and tradition, and progressive cultivation or learned behaviors that can advance social status.
Enculturation will define “individual exposure to multiple cultural influences,” way of life will define social identity and in-group or out-group choice, and progressive cultivation will define how a person attempts to improve their social status. Throughout a lifetime, there is plenty of opportunity to believe or remove negative and positive prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination.
Favoring In-Groups
Maxwell, Reynolds, Lee, Subasic, and Bromhead state that social identity theory explains how a “group, system or organization (e.g., school) influences individual behavior (e.g., student or staff member) when an individual feels psychologically part of that group, system, or organization.” When a person becomes part of a social group, the individual will commit to the many, if not all, of the prejudices and stereotypes that are associated.
Being part of an in-group results in receiving psychological and social benefits from each other by following the group rules while being a member of the out-group means being ignored and possibly penalized for being unable to fit in a dominant or prosperous group.
As mentioned by Jerry Burger, conformity and obedience are natural behaviors for humans; therefore, many biased behaviors, whether ethical or not, have their roots in collective thinking. The amount of conformity depends on one or more dominant cultures which influence the society’s biases since there are in-groups and out-groups with social norms, and if those customs are not followed, minor or extensive bias is shown against the members of out-groups.
The research by Maxwell, Reynolds, Lee, Subasic, and Bromhead shows how school climate and social identification can result in the academic success of students because they feel accepted and encouraged which improves involvement in school activities and increases the chances of completing schoolwork.
Not all in-groups foster positive norms, and not all out-groups are punished, but creating and expanding in-groups that do inspire constructive and empathetic biases can combat in-groups with harmful norms.
Stereotype Threat
The researchers Gündemir, Homan, de Dreu, and van Vugt explain that implicit bias include the traits that one perceives that another person has or does not have, and this can result in racial preferences. Implicit bias plays a role in stereotyping, prejudices, and discrimination — especially racism — because people who are viewed with a negative implicit bias are more likely to face discrimination. According to Gündemir, Homan, de Dreu, and van Vugt, the Western portion of the world views those that are racially white as possessing leadership traits while those from other races are seen as less capable of being good leaders.
Being white and a leader is the positive implicit bias whereas being a minority and not a leader is a negative implicit bias. These stereotypes can influence the type of people that hold positions as managers in a business, government officials, and who makes the majority of the decisions and who has the final word within a social group.
As stated by Shapiro, Williams, and Hambarchyan, a stereotype threat occurs when a person worries that their behavior validates a stereotype or a belief that is considered standard for a certain type of person or group. Their article shows that there are two forms of stereotype threat: group-as-target stereotype threat is the fear of presenting behaviors that “reflect poorly on the abilities of one’s group” while self-as-target stereotype threat is the fear of presenting behaviors that will place oneself in a negative view.
A stereotype threat can impact individuals and groups of people and the way they behave and perform because a person may not feel suitable enough for a certain situation or action when, in reality, that individual possesses the necessary skills.
Employment and Education Biases
Stereotyping, prejudices and discrimination do occur regularly in the real world, and people do suffer when these biases are negative. Employment choices, career stereotypes, workplace discrimination issues, and possessing or lacking the education or job that is preferred by society can create negative associations and interactions. According to businesswoman Farah Saleem and Dan Worth, employers and other employees have a negative view of people who work part-time, only work from home, or are freelancers that may not be regular employees because they are seen as unprofessional men and mothers that might as well be unemployed.
Researchers Veelen, Derks, and Endedijk found that women in STEM and other male dominated industries, such as law enforcement and sales and finance, are more likely to experience stereotype threat related to gender identity because they may feel more incompetent and undeserving compared to their male counterparts.
Also, the journal article by Carliner, Sarvet, Gordon, and Hasin demonstrates that the combination of having a lesser level of education, being female, and being an ethnic or racial minority increase the likelihood of experiencing stereotyping and discrimination — leading to substance abuse in order to cope with the social stress and poverty.
Implicit bias may influence a business owner’s preference in who works for their company, and they may not hire a person who is stereotyped as high risk for theft, absence, or problems at home. Other times, an individual may be considered as less intelligent and hardworking because they may have earned a college degree that involves principles that are not considered complex, creative, or practical enough for that employer while family members and strangers may even have similar negative biases.
The impact of these biases could negatively affect potential employees by minimizing their abilities, keeping them underemployed, and potentially decreasing the interests of the companies that refused them.
The Stigma of Mental Illness
While certain behaviors do allow for some amount of choice, many physical disabilities, mental illnesses, and physical looks only allow for so much alteration in the real world. As revealed by Quinn, Williams, and Weisz, people with a mental illness self-stigmatize and anticipate discrimination at work as many have experienced “not get hired for a job (26%), getting hassled by the police (23%), getting fired from a job (16%) , and getting poorer medical treatment/service (13%).”
Anxiety disorder and depression are two of the most prevalent mental illnesses, and the potential for a low self-esteem could be a reason for expecting to experience bias which may foster a type of self-fulfilling prophesy by expressing their feelings at their jobs — some even lowering their standards and work ethic since they may believe that no one understands their disorder.
The experiment by Oaten, Stevenson, and Case shows how error management theory plays a part in how people with physical signs of disease whether it is skin disfiguration, missing body parts, foul odor, any form of discharge, excessive or insufficient body mass or volume, and movements that are abnormal face regular bias.
Researchers Lee, Son, Yoon, and Kim have discovered that young adults are at the highest risk for feeling victimized because of biases against their physical appearance which can result in a low health rating. John Scholz and Kamil Sicinski have found that men that have higher facial symmetry, which is considered attractive, earn a higher income than those with less symmetrical facial features. In fact, these males were also favored by teachers and more likely to be placed in-groups and in positions of leadership since they were more likely to have personality traits that are considered attractive like extroversion, agreeableness, and openness.
Biases negatively impact those who are considered less attractive, healthy, and mentally and emotionally stable by potentially worsening a person’s mental illness and depriving them of the ability to express skills that are not related to their illness or physical traits by forcing them into avoidance.
Perception and Validity of Judgments
Prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination have negative and positive effects on individuals, groups of people, and to society as a whole. Negatively, when discrimination is combined with human aggression, innocent and guilty individuals can be injured — if not killed. While it may seem that all forms of discrimination are invalid, that is not true if a person correctly assesses another person’s dangerous motives and decides to act in self-defense. Of course, many other forms of discrimination lack physical violence and may be as simple as refusing service and association based on appearance, performance unrelated to a situation, or social status.
According to Anderson and Bushman, through moral justification and victim dehumanization, some will resort to “extreme and mass violence” with thoughts like “‘it is for the person’s own good,’ or the good of the society, or that personal honor demands the violent action.” The positive effects relate more to choosing long-term partners, employees, and members of social groups, but there is a high risk of inaccuracy because humans are prone to pretense and camouflage in order to be selected.
Since some innate biases are not valid, the research by Qian, Quinn, Heyman, Pascalis, Fu, and Lee shows that one can lessen their influence by being exposed to people of other races or categorizations in a one-on-one setting that allows for in-depth understanding — this needs to be done regularly.
Some biases are created because an individual perceives another as different, based on visual evidence, while other biases are shaped by social interactions, and these biases can foster negative or positive views towards a certain type of person based on one or a few experiences.
The problem is that visual perceptions do not allow for the complete understanding of a person, and limited physical interaction with a certain type of person does not define everyone from that group or categorization. This can create unjustifiable stereotypes and prejudices.
Conclusion
The evidence shows that prejudices and stereotypes can easily result in more unjustifiable discrimination than what would be considered valid discrimination. I agree with Paul Bloom on the importance of combining the instincts and feelings that create prejudices and stereotypes with rational human rights in order to avoid invalid biases, especially aggressive discrimination. People should be treated kindly or, at least with indifferent tolerance, but there is no reason to behave cruelly.
People are not equal in many ways, and a variety of qualities can’t be changed, nor are they relative to several situations, so many forms of discrimination are unwarranted. Only a few instances of danger may validate discriminatory behavior, and a person may not always know if it was a lawful or smart action, until after the other person reacts.
That is what makes discrimination, in actual moments of life or death, to be problematic because mistakes have been made when people were wrong about the intentions of others.
For those that were right in their decision, it solidifies personal biases, and while the situation may repeat itself, the result could vary. This could easily relate to firearms used in home defense and personal protection while in public because a quick decision to shoot may save a life, and hesitation to respond may lead to the demise of the victim.
Still, inadequate aim or a false perception may result in the death of an innocent person, and that is why judgements need to be made not only quickly but precisely.
Reflecting on My Biases
I’ve learned of biases that favor and disfavor all variations of people and behaviors, and most people are regularly judging other and vice versa. I always want to be authentic with everyone, wherever, and whenever, but I worry about the possibility of being unethical and too blunt to the point of hurting someone psychologically. The majority of my prejudices and stereotypes relate to the negative view I have of certain hypocrisies and extremes that happen in American society in general.
The more positive stereotypes and prejudices that I possess do favor some personality types and behaviors, people and objects that I consider physically and spiritually attractive, and a combination of ancient and modern principles. I disfavor what I’ve never been, and I favor what seems balanced and morally right because that is what I aspire to be and may already be at some level.
Just as it is typical of human instinct, I have suffered stereotype threat and some of the biases that I mentioned in the real world examples. I have experienced actual discrimination for being an overweight child and for not having a conformist appearance and “proper” behaviors as an adolescent. As an adult, I have noticed how my physical appearance as a minority has resulted in several comments and defensive glances over the years. It’s insulting because I am not a thief nor a filthy person.
I have to remember that some biases are well-grounded, but many are unnecessary or even malignant given the circumstances.
The goal, especially after acquiring all of this knowledge related to biases, is to not fall victim to faulty leaders and ideas while attempting to be more empathetic and slower to judge when possible.
