Samantha Li/ Edge Columnist
What are biases hidden inside that we don’t know? How do people sometimes fall into misbehaving? Why do intentions and actions not align sometimes? People believe that they act in a fair manner and make decisions based on facts, but meanwhile have overlooked the unconscious side of their brain.
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald, investigates the underlying biases that everyone has due to factors such as nationality, age, gender, race, and religion. The authors wondered how much these mental ‘blind spots’ influence our assessments of people’s ability, potential, personality, and dived into people’s behavior correlated to their biases.
In the book, the authors discussed the science underlying this behavior in a clear, easy-to-understand manner by providing small experiments for readers to try. They discussed how the mind generates automatic associations based on what it thinks is true by constantly giving examples and presenting scientific evidence behind them.
For instance, in one chapter they investigate – the hidden cost of stereotypes, the authors mentioned how people tend to generate a “Black = weapon stereotype”. While explaining in words, a self-test is also provided. The test contains two tables consisting of people’s faces of different races and weapons from old times. However, the first table asks the reader to circle African American faces, the second table asks to circle European American faces. The authors noted that even though weapons from old times are correlated more with Europe, people find it harder to do the second table as a result of the “Black = weapon stereotype.”
The well-known idea of “in-group favoritism”, or “in-group bias”, is also explained in this manner. Before starting, a test question asks readers, “Who do you believe are ‘good people’ in the topic?” Based on the results, the authors further went on to explain the presence of “in-group favoritism”. If readers select themselves, individuals around them, or individuals who are similar to them, they may have an “in-group favoritism”, for which they naturally favor those who are classified in the same group as them, based on various factors such as race, personality, and occupation.
By doing so, the book encourages readers to examine their own blind spots and learn about them from the inside at the same time, thus further explore how these affect the quality of their decision-making abilities, whether at work or in their personal life.
More intriguing questions including “does automatic ‘White preference’ mean ‘prejudice’?”, “do mere associations show up in behavior?”, “do neurons care about ‘us’ versus ‘them’?” are asked and answered in the book with in-depth analysis.
Blindspot helps people interested in behaviourism, consciousness, or social psychology in learning related concepts and phenomena while remaining lively and engaging. It is unquestionably a book worth reading.
Sources:
Blindspot: Hidden biases of good people, Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B004J4WJUC?ref=KC GS GB CA#customerReviews
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blindspot-mahzarin-r-banaji/1102334630
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