This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome. Today I would like to share one of the best cognitive bias demonstrations I have ever seen with everyone on Daily Kos. It was done by Daryl Davis in an interview with Edwin Rutsch the founder of Building a Culture of Empathy. Daryl Davis is a black man that befriended over 200 Ku Klux Klan members and over time convinced them to turn in their robes.
Daryl Davis is a blues musician, but he also has what some might call an interesting hobby. For the past 30 years, Davis, a black man, has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan.
NPR article: How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes.
The demonstration is on a video posted on YouTube and Daryl performs it on Edwin. It is a simple riddle and after I learned it I was able to repeat the riddle to two of my friends. Both Edwin and my friends, all liberal Democrats, demonstrated this cognitive bias. Even myself while watching the video took time to solve the riddle, because of this cognitive bias.
Here is another snip from the NPR article describing Daryl. And jump the fold for more on cognitive bias and a link to the video and a transcript for those that can not view videos. A little more about Daryl.
He says once the friendship blossoms, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. Since Davis started talking with these members, he says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. When that happens, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people.
NPR article: How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes.
What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself beyond the fold in a comment. This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome.
Below is the video with the riddle segment mentioned above starting at 37 minutes into the video. Daryl gives the riddle and it takes about 9 minutes for Edwin to figure out the answer. Daryl is absolutely masterful in skillfully prompting Edwin to solve the riddle. And with each cycle of Daryl asking the riddle again different manifestations of the same cognitive bias emerge. For the best experience I recommend you watch the video and see Edwin struggle to find the answer. And while he is struggling you the viewer try and come up with the answer.
The transcript is below the video embed and the answer is at the end of the transcript. (I removed all the “uh” & “um” transcriptions and slightly edited it for reading ease.)
Way down at the end of this diary I will have a summary section with spoilers.
VIDEO
Here is the link to the video if you do not want to click on the embed below: https://youtu.be/H-yMDVVYvoY?si=yNyiw7YC3HnpS_w_&t=2252. (Be aware that embeds can be infected with links that can attack your computer.)
SEGMENT TRANSCRIPT
Daryl: Let me let me give you an example of something. And maybe you already know this. So what what county are you in?
Edwin: So I’m in Contra Costa It’s the San Francisco bay area.
Daryl: Okay Contra Costa County okay what what's what's a neighboring county one that borders a Contra Costa.
Edwin: Alameda.
Daryl: Alameda okay so let's just hypothetically say that a father and son are driving from Alameda county to Contra Costa County. And right on the county line their car crashes with a tractor-trailer that jumped the median or something. Both father and son are seriously injured but because it happened on the county line both Alameda and Contra Costa respond to the scene.
The Alameda ambulance takes the father to Alameda memorial hospital. He is in bad shape. The Contra Costa rescue squad takes the son to a Contra Costa general hospital. The son is in critical critical condition. He needs an operation immediately or he's going to die. So he's in the emergency room. The doctor rushes in to operate and takes one look and says I cannot operate on him that's my son.
How do you explain that?
Edwin: That someone feels so deeply connected to someone that they feel too emotional to be able to work logically on them.
Daryl: Well you know by ... by by law a doctor cannot perform an operation on their family member for that very reason. So how do you explain what was said there?
Edwin: I was actually kind of so moved by. Just I was kind of like losing it. Because I just I'm just very moved by the work that you do. And I was just kind of in that space. Okay so I'll reflect back what I'm hearing you say as you say it. Then let me follow it.
Daryl: All right. So a father and son are driving from Alameda to Contra Costa.
Edwin: Okay. So I got that they're right on the border line and one is going in one county and the other is going the other county. They're both going to the ER. right right and one o r that the yeah
Daryl: the son the son needs an immediate operation okay he's losing blood everything so the doctor rushes in to operate and takes one look and says i cannot operate on him that's my son.
Edwin: But it doesn't quite make sense to me because it wasn't that the father and son or in the accident and they're in different counties.
Daryl: Yes they are.
Edwin: why is why would it be the son the father isn't is that yet doing the operation you're gonna have to run that's yeah yeah all right.
Daryl: So let me let me run it by you one more again. Okay father and son driving from Alameda County to Contra Costa. Right on the county line they have a severe accident both are severely injured. Alameda takes the father to Alameda hospital. Contra Costa takes son to the hospital. The son needs an operation immediately. He needs blood. He needs everything. The doctor rushes in to operate. Takes one look and says I cannot operate on him that's my son. Who was the doctor? Who is the doctor?
Edwin: The guy has two fathers or it's uh the person yeah that doesn't make they don't get it.
Daryl: So okay. Now what would you say if i told you that you have a prejudice a bias? You're a biased person what do you say?
Edwin: Well bias I see is a form of judgment. And I think we're I'm kind of like swimming In judgment and so I think people in swimming so we the whole culture is sort of swims in judgment so it's possible yeah.
Daryl: Okay, do you have a doctor?
Edwin: I do. Yeah.
Daryl: Tell me a little bit about your doctor?
Edwin: She's ...
Daryl: Hold on! hold on! I said doctor. I didn't say nurse. I said doctor.
Edwin: Yeah actually it's a she. women are.
Daryl: are there a she doctor? Are you sure it's not a nurse practitioner?
Edwin: I'm sure yeah.
Daryl: Your positive is a doctor?
Edwin: It's a physician. Yeah.
Daryl: You believe that female doctors exist?
Edwin: I do yeah.
Edwin: Really?
Daryl: Really it's just interesting. Have you. Is she the only female doctor that you've ever seen or that you are aware of?
Edwin: No I know a lot of a female doctors.
Daryl: You really know a lot of female doctors?
Edwin: Yeah.
Daryl: Now again I'm not talking about nurses. Or nurse practitioners. A nurse practitioner is very close to a doctor.
Edwin: Right, yeah, my partner is an infectious disease nurse. So I ... But yeah …
Daryl: But you're talking about a bona fide MD who's a female.
Edwin: Right.
Daryl: Okay father and son are driving from Alameda to Contra Costa they crash on the county line. They both are injured severely. Both jurisdictions respond. The paramedics from Alameda take the father to Alameda hospital. The people from from Contra Costa take the son to contra Costa hospital. The son is in dire need of an operation immediately or he's gonna die. So the doctor rushes in to operate and takes one look and says I cannot operate on him that's my son. Who was the doctor?
Edwin: He said it was his father.
Daryl: I said father and son are going to the.
Edwin: Oh a father and a son
Daryl: Okay let's say a father and his biological son
Edwin: We're gonna nail this yeah!
Daryl: Yeah they share DNA okay and they're going to from Alameda to Contra Costa and they have the accident the the biological father goes to the Alameda and the biological son goes to Contra Costa the doctor rushes in to operate and looks at the patient and says I cannot operate on him that's my son.
Edwin: Oh so it was the uh the father had his father is has is a doctor no no I I'm not getting this this is you're gonna have to explain it to me. So okay?
Daryl: Well when I explain it to you you're gonna feel bad.
Edwin: Okay yeah.
Daryl: But but I will have empathy for you.
Edwin: Okay you'll have sympathy. Empathy is where you sense into the pain I have for the struggling the sympathy is where you sort of feel sorry for.
Daryl: Okay. Let's go back to your doctor for a second. What what's her name?
Edwin: Edwin oh my name.
Daryl: No no your doctors name.
Edwin: Risa.
Daryl: And you're positive that Risa is a female doctor. There's no doubt in your mind she is a bona fide doctor.
Edwin: Yeah okay.
Daryl: How long have you had Risa?
Edwin: A couple of years.
Daryl: Do you know anything did she have any kids?
Edwin: Yes one child.
Daryl: have you seen that child.
Edwin: I haven't.
Daryl: You know what that child is. Boy or Girl?
Edwin: I think it is a boy.
Daryl: Okay now we're getting somewhere maybe. So the doctor rushes in and takes one look and says I cannot operate on him that's my son.
Edwin: Oh! The doctor it could be of course it's a female doctor. Right. So I had the perception that it was.
Daryl: Who was the doctor?
Edwin: (long pause) The doctor is the mother.
Daryl: Exactly yeah.
Edwin: So I had all these preconceived notions.
Daryl: Exactly.
Edwin: There you got me.
Daryl: So I wasn't trying to get you I mean it was a bona fide question
Edwin: No no that's a fair that's a fair.
Daryl: OK so you know your reality. Now consciously you are not biased against females. But subconsciously, subliminally, you showed a bias against women. I didn't say he rushed in. I said the doctor rushed in to operate and took one look and said I cannot operate on him that's my son.
Edwin: Right.
Daryl: But yet you're gonna make every excuse to make it a man. Even though I asked you do you have a doctor. You said yeah you got a female doctor. And you know a bunch of female doctors. But you would not go there because of that bias.
Edwin: That's true yeah.
Daryl: Right so this is this is very important. You know while we have to to listen to and have empathy for these people. Because their reality is their reality. They only know what they know. And you know consciously they may know something is wrong but subconsciously they have some kind of bias in them.
SUMMARY WITH SPOILERS
The Riddle: A father and son traveling together get in a car accident. One goes to one hospital the other goes to a different hospital. The doctor treating the son says, “I can not operate on this patient because he is my son.” Who is the doctor?
The Answer: The doctor is a woman. The son’s mother.
The Cognitive Bias: First, this blind spot in the understanding of the gender of the doctor is an age dependent social scotoma. Daryl notes later in the video that this blind spot is far more pronounced in older folks that grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s. He conjectures that they grew up watching doctors on TV being all men. Think of the TV show Marcus Welbe, M.D. or, Dr. Ben Casey on County General Hospital.