“Mindbugs – ingrained habits of thought that lead to errors in how we perceive, remember, reason, and make decisions”
Mindbugs are reminiscent of another trick of the brain; implicit biases. Implicit biases “refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner” . Implicit biases are mindbugs on a higher scale of how the brain can negatively perceive a situation. In the article’s case, all that was at stake was misjudging the equal size of two shapes, but what about when it comes to the equal rights of two humans? We are all created equal but our society enforces stereotypes to build the implicit biases that some races are superior to others. This is a major issue especially when it comes to the label and biases of criminality. For example, the identification of a criminal as the “dangerous black criminal”. Criminality is not a label created by existing behind the bars of a cell, but a label that can be given to individuals before they are even born. It is the predetermined conception of who these individuals are supposed to be, ultimately shaping who they become. Mindbugs or implicit biases exist are not correct responses but rather automatic responses to the world being filtered in. Our job is not to take in the world without speculation but to relentlessly question without hesitation.
It is so interesting to frame mindbugs in a similar light as implicit biases, as both can be so harmful in a situation like a criminal case. We see this with police brutality and mass incarceration of black and brown people in the United States. Mindbugs and implicit biases are essential for us to question sources and as you posited, not to take in the world without speculation.
I thought you had a really interesting conclusion for your analysis! Mindbugs and implicit biases can have detrimental effects when extrapolated to a larger scale or to larger issues. To continue without questioning is to partake and build implicit biases to the point where they become explicit; a way to avoid these dangers is to question the source of ourselves and others’ knowledge to determine whether it roots from bias.
I also thought about implicit biases as I was reading the article. It reminded me of what we talked about in 101 with how we select our leaders. We all have subconscious ideas about what we think a leader should look like and even if we say we think otherwise it is really difficult to actually act in that way, which is frustrating to me.
Thank you for bringing up implicit biases! I did my research paper last semester on implicit biases and journalism, and I completely agree in connecting them to mindbugs. One way it may differ is in how we can work to re-train our own implicit biases, but our brains will always perceive certain illusions the same way. For example, the opening diagram of the mindbugs chapter. Even when you prove to yourself that the tabletops are the same size (by cutting out the piece of paper and trying it), your brain still processes them as different sizes when you pull the paper away. For implicit biases, there is a fair amount of research that has show we can slowly evolve our implicit biases through reassociation, cultural exposure and finding positive role models.
I really enjoyed this post. What I think we can do is acknowledge/realize our implicit biases/mind bugs. Be made aware of them so then we will not fall into this trap of wrongfully convicting a person based upon an unconcious thought/opinion. If you act upon your implicit biases that is when it becomes a problem.