Tribal Bias
Yesterday I listened to a podcast by “You are not so smart” on SoundCloud.
It spoke widely about how we understand facts and interpret facts to favour our 'tribes’. Tribe here can meaning your ideological bias, the sports team you support or any abstract concept you consider to be a part of your 'identity’. It could also be religion, class, caste, race etc.
It made me understand the identity problem we have as a specie. We let our 'identity' get the best of us. We let it become our limitation as opposed to what we think. We as a specie think by 'defining' ourselves into particular groups we are actually 'liberating' our minds/personality.
But in reality we are simply putting up borders and saying “This is it. This is all there is to me. Nothing more.”
That isn’t to say we should have ideals and values and principles, but at the same time we should constantly check if these are limiting us from understanding the world better.
We cannot let convictions filter out facts. The podcasts speaks of how numbers are manipulated unconsciously by subjects in order to reach a particular “fact". They do this because of “tribal bias”. The example given was that of Republican and Democrat supporters.
In India, during upcoming elections, the tribal bias is very evident in the way reporting has been happening of several incidents. The news organizations have begun pushing their bias over facts in order to support their “tribe” (be it left or right wing).
This is a dangerous trait which is deeply ingrained in humans since prehistoric times.
This distortion of reality could at some point become the downfall of us as a society.
The purpose of writing this blog is for me to observe tribal bias happening around and maybe write and 'fact-check' whenever something is distorted to support ones tribe.
It is a task though as election rallies have begun months ago and keeping track could be difficult. But it could be my new hobby just during these elections. 😋
Here is the podcast. The channel has discussed some other interesting topics as well. And I mainly love the name of the channel. :D
Tribal Psychology (rebroadcast) by You Are Not So Smart
https://soundcloud.com/youarenotsosmart/146-tribal-psychology-rebroadcast
