Unconscious bias
2007-09-24 by julianmorrison
Over the past few decades, growing evidence from cognitive science has revealed significant limits on the ability of individuals to criticize their own viewpoints. Even the most analytically gifted and experienced among us are susceptible to bias and self-deception to an extent that we (ironically enough) generally fail to appreciate.
[...] Science eventually yields impressive answers because it compels smart people to incessantly try to disprove the ideas generated by other smart people.
[...] In the present cultural climate, altering one’s beliefs in response to anything (facts included) is considered a sign of weakness. Students must be convinced that changing one’s mind in light of the evidence is not weakness: Changing one’s mind is the essence of intellectual growth.
( Thomas W. Martin, Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Discourse, Seed magazine online, 2007-09-21)
Science is certainly powerful as an algorithm, but it seems to me to be making an unjustified assumption that human nature is a given, and must be worked around.
I think it would be an interesting research project: can humans learn to be less biased? I mean a systematic Dune Mentat style “naive” stance that doesn’t so much quash bad ideas (all good scientists already try to do that), but aims to generate fresh ones without falling into the traps set by the unconscious mind.
