Unconscious Bias

The latest fad in corporate, political and social media debate is Unconscious Bias.

What does it mean and why is it being used in discussion?

The phrase is used during a conversation where two people disagree on an issue.

One party will say of the other that their view is weakened because it derives from an Unconscious Bias.

This is the latest pseudo-intellectual defence of someone who is desperate to win an argument and to win the title of "Correct View" and winner of the debate.

There is some truth to the concept behind the phrase, because it is not a new concept.

Unconscious Bias sounds like it stands for a new enlightenment, discovered recently.

It is not.

Same pig, different lipstick.

The concept that our views, beliefs, tenets, rational conclusions are influenced by our personal morality is ancient.

Influenced. Not derived from. There is a difference. And this difference is the problem.

Of course our life experience and our morality and character can influence our arguments and our positions on an issue for debate or discussion. But those arguments do not derive from this. They are at best a source of influence. That influence can be recognised and rejected by a conscious mind.

In contrast, Unconscious Bias proponents claim that your view is derived ONLY from an Unconcious Bias and that you have no control over it nor even awareness of it.

You can see the power of such a claim made against an opponent during debate.

You can say to your opponent that they are not aware that their argument derives solely from a power in their mind that they have no control over.

This means that the opponents argument is not a product of rational deliberation, logic or intellectual insight, but their argument is derived from an all powerful, unconscious Big Bang that is devoid of reason.

So instead of rationally concluding an argument or position on an issue, the opponent has always had a their view arrived at through a weakness of character than an intellectual exercise.

Therefore, the opponents argument is not rational but irrational and consequently weak, subjective and fallible.

The truth is that rational people already identify any biases they might have and are ready and willing to destroy them for the sake of truth. They may begin unconsciously, but the power of reason is in its deliberate action of seeking out what is unconscious and thus making it conscious.

Everyone has conscious biases. Biases chosen by reason or morality.

It is a harder intellectual exercise to convince us that someone has a bias they are not aware of, but that they are aware of.

The onus of proof is on the claimant, "You have an unconscious bias."

Further, if the logic is sound and the facts are empirically verifiable, then Unconcisous Bias doesn't matter. The proponent cannot argue that a valid argument is defeated by such a claim. A black cat is a cat, no matter what the Unconscious Bias.