Identifying and Responding to Bias

[Snufkin]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.

I have two related questions:

1) How would I determine if I have cognitive bias (e.g. confirmation bias) that is subconsciously leading me to an incorrect conclusion?

I have an example scenario:
An atheist and a Christian are talking,
the atheist claims the Christian is biased in favor of god existing, and this is affecting his judgement.
The Christian claims the atheist is biased against the possibility of God existing and this is affecting his judgement.

Is there a way to determine who has the largest bias in some sort of objective way?
I know that having bias doesn't neccesarily mean the person is incorrect, but identifying it may give the person reason to re-examine their facts in a less biased way, which leads to my second question:

2) How do we remove personal bias when we examine evidence and make conclusions?

Whilst writing this up I did a little research and I found about a Implicit Association Test, which seems interesting and I will look into it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Squawk]

I'll be looking in on this topic quite a bit, but for now I'm pressed for time so this is gonna be short and sweet.

I'd suggest that this is tackled too fold. First, simple awareness of confirmation bias will make one less likely to fall victim, enabling one to take precautions. However, to really remove it what we need is a methodology. That's where I love science and the double blind study, but finding a method for day to day reasoning is much harder.

I tend to find that I clarify my position on things by arguing/debating. If I have reached a given conclusion I lay it open for others to take pot shots at. If I can honestly answer the questions thrown at it then the position is strengthened. If I have to resort to mental gymnastics in order to hold the position then it is weakened, and subsequently abandoned.

The issue is whether or not your mind is open enough to accept that it may be wrong, and the only way to determine this is to look at the attitudes you held at a given time in the past, note how they have changed, and note why they have changed. If you can't find a single significant viewpoint that has changed in the last 10 years then I would suggest you are a victim of confirmation bias.

Then again, I can find such instances, so maybe I'm guilty of confirmation bias due to the fact that I propose that as a test. Alas, tis philosophy, and can be much fun.

 

[Gnug215]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.

I have two related questions:

1) How would I determine if I have cognitive bias (e.g. confirmation bias) that is subconsciously leading me to an incorrect conclusion?

I have an example scenario:
An atheist and a Christian are talking,
the atheist claims the Christian is biased in favor of god existing, and this is affecting his judgement.
The Christian claims the atheist is biased against the possibility of God existing and this is affecting his judgement.

Is there a way to determine who has the largest bias in some sort of objective way?
I know that having bias doesn't neccesarily mean the person is incorrect, but identifying it may give the person reason to re-examine their facts in a less biased way, which leads to my second question:

2) How do we remove personal bias when we examine evidence and make conclusions?

Whilst writing this up I did a little research I found that about a Implicit Association Test, which seems interesting and I will look into it.

Thanks in advance.

Very interesting topic, one I have thought about for a while now.

The thinking I've been doing has mostly resulted in introspection on my own part, because it's so abundantly clear that many religious people suffer greatly from confirmation bias. With that in mind, I've also had some thoughts on how to make religious people aware of the fact that they're suffering from this. I haven't come up with any great ideas for that, other than what Squawk says about making them aware of confirmation bias as a concept.

But say, could you perhaps share a bit more about what you found out about that Implicit Association Test?

Also, if you like, perhaps share a bit about how it is that you're interested in this subject?

Welcome to the forum, btw. Excellent first post.

 

[lrkun]

A christian is biased when he is presented with an argument, but when it goes against his religion, he says it is wrong, even if the evidence is overwhelming, or when he sees something which coincides with his belief, he says it is correct even if there is no evidence presented or when the evidence supports the contrary. The latter is confirmation bias.

The same applies to the atheist.

p.s. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Snufkin]

Thanks Gnug215!

Here's why I'm interested in the subject:
I recently visited a religious debate chat room which had a number of young earth creationists. I had never been exposed to such religious people before and I found it shocking, not only because they thought the earth was 7-10 thousand years old, but because they were utterly convinced they were correct.
When presented with scientific evidence that the earth was older than they believed they would brush it off, but when asked what scientific method could be used to date the earth accurately they suddenly turned into non-scientists. :facepalm:

It made me more aware of bias and got me thinking: "How do I know I'm not making similar mistakes?".

I'm still looking into the implicit association test (I haven't had much time yet).

 

[kenandkids]

1) How would I determine if I have cognitive bias (e.g. confirmation bias) that is subconsciously leading me to an incorrect conclusion?


Is there a way to determine who has the largest bias in some sort of objective way?
I know that having bias doesn't neccesarily mean the person is incorrect, but identifying it may give the person reason to re-examine their facts in a less biased way, which leads to my second question:

2) How do we remove personal bias when we examine evidence and make conclusions?

1) Did you come to your conclusion through the fallacy of Appeal to Authority? Or did you actually read and/or learn from a person that is an authority in the field? Did you spend time researching the various positions? Did you read alternative literature and apply Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit to it as well as to your own sources?

Answering these will tell you if you arrived at a conclusion through bias or education.

2) The way to remove bias is by looking at that which can be tested and proven. If you find that you are holding an opinion that has been proven wrong, like the conservative belief in trickledown or the idea that lower taxes mean corporations will invest in jobs and/or communities, then you are allowing bias to form opinions. If you have spent time on research and actually compared and contrasted the opposing concepts as well, you are likely not speaking from bias.

 

[australopithecus]

It made me more aware of bias and got me thinking: "How do I know I'm not making similar mistakes?".

Because you're asking that question.

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.

I have two related questions:

1) How would I determine if I have cognitive bias (e.g. confirmation bias) that is subconsciously leading me to an incorrect conclusion?

I have an example scenario:
An atheist and a Christian are talking,
the atheist claims the Christian is biased in favor of god existing, and this is affecting his judgement.
The Christian claims the atheist is biased against the possibility of God existing and this is affecting his judgement.

Is there a way to determine who has the largest bias in some sort of objective way?
I know that having bias doesn't neccesarily mean the person is incorrect, but identifying it may give the person reason to re-examine their facts in a less biased way, which leads to my second question:

Assuming that you are an otherwise rational person, a bias will eventually lead to a contradiction, either with reality or with your other beliefs. Think carefully over the consequences of your beliefs and thoughts and see if there are any results that are inconsistent or difficult to resolve. These probably point to a bias.

2) How do we remove personal bias when we examine evidence and make conclusions?

Whilst writing this up I did a little research and I found about a Implicit Association Test, which seems interesting and I will look into it.

Thanks in advance.

Do you want to? Biases are a natural part of the human experience and make each individual distinct. More broadly, biases allow for more definite responses to complex issues, as not everything fits neatly into a correct/incorrect dichotomy.

Take belief in god. There's been research which shows that a degree of religiosity has positive effects on health. So is it more correct to believe something that is factually incorrect, or to pass up benefits to yourself? There's no purely rational way to make a decision like that - you are compelled to rely on your biases as to which way is superior.

The IAT seems too unreliable to me, too much like a talk show host stunt. "Scientific test proves your subconscious is racist (or whatever)!" Meh.

 

[Case]

You can determine certain kinds of bias (to a degree) by completing implicit association tests:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

I just did the RIAT and apparently I'm fairly neutral with a bit of positive bias towards Judaism. I can't say I'd agree with that interpretation, but hey, the interpretation of a measurement can only be as accurate as the assumption underlying the method.

 

[Squawk]

Pretty much neutral, slightly positive on judaism, slightly negative on islam.

 

[CommonEnlightenment]

Slightly positive hinduism

Neutral christianity and judaism

Slightly negative islam