Self-bias Self check

[Solonius]

What is a good way to check if you are bias about something?  The problem I see is that generally a bias is forged by "perceived facts" which are very slippery. Also can a self known false bias be healthy if it helps you progress though life like "heard mentality"?

[Forestluv]

44 minutes ago, Solonius said:

What is a good way to check if you are bias about something?  

Self is constructed through biases. Rather than asking *if* I am biased, I try to observe *how* I am biased. This is a very different orientation. For me, it is much easier to see degrees of bias within my mind from this orientation. In part, because it disables the stigmatization and reactionary defense against self bias and allows a curiosity to arise. 

For example the question “Am I biased toward other ethnic groups?” creates a binary choice between bad and good. I get to choose between being a racist (bad) or a nonracist (good). In contrast, the question “How am I biased toward other ethnic groups?” allows space for nuances, degrees and exploration. I’m now free to consider things like subconscious biases, prior conditioning, micro biases and intention vs impact.

The best way for me to reveal this is to step outside my comfort zone. For example, I lived in South America for three months and I also dated women outside my race. Through these experiences, many of my subconscious biases were revealed. Some were easily let go of. Awareness alone was sufficient. Others were conditioned patterns that needed some de-conditioning work. 

[Solonius]

23 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

For example, I lived in South America for three months and I also dated women outside my race. Through these experiences, many of my subconscious biases were revealed. Some were easily let go of.

In this case wouldn't new biases emerge? Granted more positive and knowledgeable ones. Or would it become a preference?

[Forestluv]

7 minutes ago, Solonius said:

In this case wouldn't new biases emerge? Granted more positive and knowledgeable ones. Or would it become a preference?

Good point. 

Yes, from the perspective that we are shaped from our experiences, new biases emerged. For example, some of my views were biased by growing up in America. Now some of my views are biased by traveling through a variety of foreign countries. Yet, I would say there is much more awareness and less attachment/identification to any particular view. 

[Salvijus]

As long as you have a single thought in your mind you're bias. Only perfect equanimity is not bias. Only full enlightenment is not bias. I mean full enlightenment, not that self-realization stuff. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Salvijus

[possibilities]

I don't see any logical perspective that can validate a "non-biased position", so bias is merely one of degrees as opposed to whether there is or isn't bias, what matters more is the reflection on the kind of bias that is present. This contemplation will afford one with a greater opportunity at discovering the utility of their introspections by comparing their inner world with the actuality of what reality is presenting them relative to their capabilities. Thus there is no "objective truth" under this way of thinking, rather there is merely levels of compatibility or incompatibility that exists between what one has conceived in their mind and the feedback that reality is presenting them. To the degree there is discrepancy between what one perceives in the feedback of reality (which is arriving at our senses in every moment) and their conceptions, if intelligence is functioning well adaptation (i.e. re-conceptualisation) should follow.

Here's a short diagram I just created to briefly explain myself here.

Otherwise feel free to checkout these three posts I've made which relate to this subject and yes, Florence Rivers is my Quora username:

Regarding the following post - if you want to cut to the chase scroll down to "We enter into this existence generally from our mother’s womb having little to no knowledge." which is where I begin to describe the real work of personal development, which is the capacity to simulate or rather, mentally time travel. Its a subject I'll expand on more in the future as its a deep and very important subject that many painfully neglect.

My first post:

https://www.quora.com/What-type-of-book-should-I-read-for-personal-development/answer/Florence-Rivers

And the next post: What does it mean to understand?

Finally the third post - the game being created in all of our heads (its own deep topic):

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by possibilities

[Leo Gura]

I will post a vlog on my blog about how to test for self-bias in the next few days.

[Nahm]

@Solonius An analogy that comes to mind is how an astronaut needs a rather sophisticated suit to make it out of the earth’s atmosphere. Except in reverse, a thought-suit, a separate-suit, and it’s fit is foreign, cumbersome, and heavy. It’s the suit one wears to get to earth. But once in, you’re in, and we can allow the suit to self dissolve, as it was intended to. We can see who’s actually in that suit. Flying is done without a suit.