Hello, folks, time to take another look at cognitive biases, those little mental shortcuts and and errors that we fall prey to as human beings. This week’s offering: The In-Group Bias.
The In-Group Bias is the tendency of people to be more favorable to people they are familiar with or who are in a member of their social group. This could manifest as favoritism in allocation of resources, or hiring, or simply a desire to be in the company of members of that group.
This bias is a deep-seated one in human society. Researchers have found that in-group bias exists even when group identities are very superficial or even when groups are arbitrary or randomly assigned. And research has shown this bias begins to manifest as young as 3 years old.
This has large effects across societies. It can affect hiring decisions for employment. It can impact social interactions in many ways, of course, up to and including things like dating and marriage. It impacts our politics, local, national, and international. It can certainly be said that racism and nationalism are very extreme and negative permutations of this bias.
So, what can we do to reduce the impact of this bias?
Exercise empathy. By putting yourself “in the shoes” of someone from the outside group, you help yourself break out of the in-group mode of thinking. Build narratives of why members of an out-group are worthy of trust. And, as usual, exercise critical thinking and self-awareness. Be willing to look at your own thought processes to examine them for evidence of bias.
For addressing it in others, ask them to explain their thought process. Why do they feel about the out-group they way they do? Maybe play Devil’s Advocate a bit and try to get them to see a different point of view.
This is a tough one to combat because it’s very ingrained into our mental processes, and, as I noted, develops early. But with some effort it’s possible to reduce their impact.
Until next time, folks!