How often do you lie? You may not be consciously aware of it, but you do it all the time.

In Blindspot, Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald discuss some of the situations when this happens. Consider how you answer these questions when someone asks you: How are you? Do you think I look fat in this dress? You most likely don’t give a sincere answer since you feel it is not expected. You want to make the other person feel good.

Or what about when your doctor asks you how many cigarettes or drinks you have daily? You most likely underestimate the number as you feel guilty and want to look better.

“Your life is being guided by your unconscious mind, and it lies to you all the time.”

Also, your answers to various surveys are most likely lies. Every time to tick a box with the words “I always / I never,” you are most likely lying. The chances are good that you most often do something, but saying that you do it always, meaning a hundred percent, is rarely the case.

You may believe you are a truthful and honest person. Still, when you think about it, there are many exceptions and situations where you say a small lie that you are most likely not as honest as you would like.

And then there is a whole set of situations where you react to people different from you about situations that don’t fit your worldview.

Your life is being guided by your unconscious mind, and it lies to you all the time.

Enter the IAT

Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit biases. These are the unconscious thoughts and feelings we have without realizing we have them. The organization was founded in 1998 by Anthony G. Greenwald of the University of Washington, Mahzarin R. Banaji of Harvard University, and Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about.

If the test reveals that you have a white preference, for example, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are prejudiced, and it certainly doesn’t mean that you are openly hostile or disrespectful towards people of color. However, it still means that you don’t see white people and those of color the same way. Take the results not as a measure of how good you are but rather as an opportunity to learn about your blind spot and consider that unconscious biases might influence you. It is a way to stop lying to yourself.

Reflective and automatic systems

Psychologists often talk about reflective and automatic systems that characterize our minds. Reflective is a thoughtful system that reasons and looks at things with logic. The automatic system is our unconscious mind that is being shaped by the culture we live in. While we understand our reflective preferences, we are oblivious to the automatic ones. You can proclaim that you are against discrimination of any kind, your reflective system at play. However, you may still be highly biased and discriminate against others without even realizing it. Your automatic, unconscious system is at play.

I’m personally a firm believer in equal rights and equitable opportunities. I hate discrimination of any kind. Yet, I’m also a product of a rather homogeneous and closed society with a strong preference for whites and men. To some extent, I’m at the mercy of my unconscious mind. So even though I find any discrimination totally unacceptable, I may still be guilty of committing it.

Before I did the IAT tests, I knew all about how our unconscious mind works. I fully expected that the results would be less than stellar, and I wouldn’t like them. Yet, I was still rather distressed when I saw the results. The tests don’t call you a bigot, but even words like “a slight automatic association” or “a moderate automatic preference” clearly indicate that, subconsciously, you don’t see everyone the same way.

“The need for harmony between your conscious and subconscious mind is so strong that you are going to do anything to achieve it.”

There is a word for it, a cognitive dissonance. It happens when one mind has to deal with two opposing and inconsistent ideas, thoughts, beliefs, or judgments. I know that I’m against any form of discrimination, yet I just learned a preference for one race. I know that I’m a strong proponent of equitable opportunities for all genders, yet I just found out that unconsciously I still associate genders with specific roles. This is a very uncomfortable mental state. When you hold two competing beliefs or when your beliefs and actions don’t align your brain revolts. Something needs to be done. You are not in harmony.

The need for harmony is so strong that you are going to do anything to achieve it. For example, I may say that the test is ridiculous and the authors don’t have a clue. Harmony restored. I know I’m against discrimination, and the test that says otherwise is stupid. Alternatively, I may accept that the test is right, and I may not know myself well. There is a learning opportunity, and I may open my eyes more to my behavior in the future. I may pay more attention and catch myself in acts that are not aligned with my non-discriminatory self-belief and fix it.

Categories and stereotypes

Stereotypes are a natural evolution of our simplification of the world. They start with categories. Categories are important as they make our lives livable. You categorize people all the time. Just consider when you do your groceries. When you pay, you hand over your credit card to the sales clerk without a second thought. Would you hand over your credit card to a random person on the street? Or, when you check in to the hotel, you hand over your ID card and even let the receptionist make a copy. Would you hand over your ID card to a person you sit next to on a bus? You automatically categorize the sales clerks and receptionists as someone trustworthy, not to steal your money or identity. Not using the category would lead to unnecessary complications in your life. So categories are good. Yet stereotypes and prejudices are bad because they give the category of people a meaning that is not there, often a negative one.

“Don’t generalize, and don’t stereotype people.”

Banaji and Greenwald show the dangers of using stereotypes in a simple statement, “Ducks lay eggs.” It sounds like a reasonable statement any five-year-old can identify with. You would say that it is generally true. Yet, it is false for the majority of ducks. First, there are more male than female ducks in the world. Second, even among the female ducks, many are too young to lay eggs. So eggs-laying ducks are a minority. What you meant was that some ducks lay eggs.

However, would you agree with the statement, “Dogs wear clothes?” You wouldn’t. Even though the implication is the same, some dogs wear clothes. Look around during winter, and you will see some dogs wearing protective clothing.

Similarly to these examples, we have many other stereotypes in our minds that, when looked into, would be clearly false. Don’t generalize, and don’t stereotype people.

Putting it all together

Categorizing people and making stereotypes is part of being human. You can’t avoid it. However, you can realize that while they simplify your life, they are often wildly inaccurate. By relying on them, you are lying to yourself.

If you are letting the stereotypes and prejudices guide your life, you are becoming a worse person than you want to be.

You can become aware of these categories, stereotypes, biases, and prejudices and mitigate them when they are unfavorable and hurtful.

You stop sorting out people. You stop lying to yourself.

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What is your take on the topic? Do you believe your decisions are truly yours? Do you see how you can be influenced by others without you realizing you are being influence? What impact does have the culture, family, and environment you live in on your decisions?

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