THE ANATOMY OF BIASSOAR Workshop on Impartiality

Norman Farb, PhDNov 5, 2015

Central Hypotheses of Social Cognition

Hypothesis 1: Situations are powerful.

Hypothesis 2: We often don't know why people do what they do.

Hypothesis 3: We don't know what we don't know.

Borrowed from Matt Lieberman at UCLA

Hypothesis 1: Situations are powerful

• Corollary 1a: We are unaware of the power of situations.

• Corollary 1b: We are unaware of how situations influence our perception of others

• Corollary 1c: The history of situations you’ve been in shape your experience and reactions today

Hypothesis 2: We often don't know why people do what they do

• Corollary 2a: We are also inaccurate about why we ourselves do the things we do

• Corollary 2b: Conscious experience is constructed and not always accurate.– Intuitions may be false– Creates empathy gaps

Hypothesis 3: We don't know what we don't know

• Corollary 3a: We are built not to know what we don't know

• Corollary 3b: We don't know the bias in our judgments because they are made automatically

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An Example

Group 1 Group 2

Group 1

Question A:

Does this room cost more than $5500 a night?

1 bdrm suite over Water, with privatePanoramic-view balcony,In Tahiti…

Group 1

Question B:

How much would you expect to pay for this hotel room?

1 bdrm suite over Water, with privatePanoramic-view balcony,In Tahiti…

Group 2

Question A:

Does this room cost more than $55 a night?

1 bdrm suite over Water, with privatePanoramic-view balcony,In Tahiti…

Group 2

Question B:

How much would you expect to pay for this hotel room?

1 bdrm suite over Water, with privatePanoramic-view balcony,In Tahiti…

Ok:

Question B:

How much would you expect to pay for this hotel room?

1 bdrm suite over Water, with privatePanoramic-view balcony,In Tahiti…

Framing matters…

 Reyna and Ellis (1994) 

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How Do We ‘Frame’ Other People?

Is this person good at sports?

Does this person like math?

Does this person know much about popular music?

Does this person like to read?

Is he aggressive?

Does he support affirmative action programs?

Does this person like baking?

Is she wild?

Does she like small children?

Is she offended by nude scenes on television?

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Is it possible that we are not always aware of our attitudes?

How Appraisal Constrains Meaning

Poor

Worthless

Rash

Stupid

Failure

HopelessSadness is activated

as a primary

response

How Appraisal Constrains Meaning

Poor

Worthless

Rash

Stupid

Failure

HopelessRepeated secondary appraisals

create habitual

conceptual associations with ‘Poor’

One interpretive pattern inhibits others…

PoorWarm

Curious

Ambitious

Worthless

Rash

Stupid

Failure

Honest Hopeless

Generous

Can we objectively test for this bias?

A mock-up of the implicit attitude test (IAT)

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In this test, you will see items that represent INSECTS, FLOWERS, pleasant words, and unpleasant words. As each item appears, you will be asked to make responses on the left or right side as quickly as possible. For touch devices, responses are made by tapping colored areas on the left and right. For keyboards, key presses are used to make responses.

INSECTS WASP FLEA ROACH CENTIPEDE MOTH BEDBU

G GNAT

FLOWERS ORCHID TULIP ROSE DAFFODIL DAISY LILAC LILY

pleasant words

gentle enjoy heaven cheer happy love friend

unpleasant words

poison evil gloom damage vomit ugly hurt

Speed is important; work as quickly as you can. Your results will not be accurate if you go too slow. If you make a mistake, you will see a red X and should rapidly make the other response to correct the error.

unpleasantor

INSECTS

pleasantor

FLOWERS

BLACK/WHITE IAT

unpleasantor

INSECTS

pleasantor

FLOWERS

BLACK/WHITE IAT

unpleasantor

INSECTS

pleasantor

FLOWERS

BLACK/WHITE IAT

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How does it work?

Your results suggest:

Strong automatic preference for *

Moderate automatic preference for *

Slight automatic preference for *

Little or no automatic preference *

Slight automatic preference for *

Moderate automatic preference for *

Strong automatic preference for *

IAT BIAS

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In Brain Terms…

Emotional Impact

Control

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So when does bias creep up?

Danziger et al., 2011

Other emotion regulation strategies?

35Garland et al., 2014

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Thank you for your attention!