Inequality is an issue that runs rampant in modern day America. Implicit bias, racism, and stereotypes are buzzwords that have the power to incite a spectrum of emotions, such as denial, disgust, sadness, and outrage in many individuals. Some people maintain that racism and inequality are issues that have been dead for decades. These individuals argue that slavery has been abolished and segregation outlawed, citing the election of the first black president as an example of how racism and bias are no longer issues, but excuses individuals make as to why they are not advancing in society. Currently, it is a commonly held belief that racism is wrong\u2014 public figures, companies, and individuals doing everything in their power to distance themselves from even the possibility of appearing racist. How is it that a society of individuals who so adamantly deny holding any types of racist beliefs, continue to react emotionally in ways that appear racist and biased?<\/p>\n
In \u201cHow Emotions are Made\u201d, Susan Barrett presents constructivism, a revolutionary theory of how emotions are created. According to Barrett, emotions are not reactions to the world, but constructions of the world (Barrett xiii). Every time you are experiencing emotions or perceive it in others, you are categorizing with concepts. According to Barrett, \u201cYour concepts are a primary tool for your brain to guess the meaning of incoming sensory inputs,\u201d (Barrett 28). In this essay, I will explore how Barrett\u2019s view of concepts clarifies how biases enable people to act in ways that do not necessarily align with their beliefs. <\/p>\n
Every person holds beliefs and stereotypes about certain groups of people that they would be ashamed to admit. In many situations, these beliefs are unconscious and only rise to the surface in situations where emotions are high and our actions seem like reflex. One example of this would be the epidemic of shooting deaths and police brutality that is most prevalent against people of color. An article from the Los Angeles Times states that getting killed by the police is a leading cause of death for young black men in America, \u201cAbout 1 in 1,000 black men and boys in America can expect to die at the hands of police, according to a new analysis of deaths involving law enforcement officers. That makes them 2.5 times more likely than white men and boys to die during an encounter with cops,\u201d (LA Times). Racism and bias are often used interchangeably, but to do so in this context would be an error. Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our actions in a subconscious manner (Ohio State). These biases develop over years of exposure to direct and indirect messages about people groups. The issue we are grappling with is how the brain acts in a way that enforces implicit biases as a predictive method of perceiving the world around us. <\/p>\n
Barrett\u2019s idea of concepts and how we form them may explain how our biases are created and how they remain when we desire to think another way. Barrett says that you are born with the fundamental ability to learn from regularities and probabilities around you; this is called statistical learning (Barrett 95). Barrett believes that our brains create meaning by weighing its predictions and probabilities (Barrett 93). The possibilities compete to explain what caused your sensations, and ultimately the most likely predictions become your perception of reality (Barrett 96). Your brain uses concepts to give meaning to an internal or external sensation from the world. Your brain sees things and imposes and creates similarities between them in the moment according to your goal in a given situation. Without concepts your brain is experientially blind, but with them your brain simulates so automatically that your senses seem more reflexive than constructed Barrett 113). <\/p>\n
The biases and stereotypes we hold are not natural, but constructed. The idea that people are inferior or superior based on their skin color or stereotypes we hold about their people group is a perceiver-dependent category of social reality. Humans exist in nature, but race and stereotypes need a perceiver in order to exist. Your brain categorizes collections of objects, things, or actions together as similar for some purpose. This is why your brain creates stereotypes. It has taken in messages from the world, and the messages become what feels like a direct perception of reality, \u201cWe take things that exist in nature and impose new functions on them that go beyond their physical properties. Then we transmit these concepts to each other, wiring each other\u2019s brains for the social world. This is the core of social reality,\u201d (Barrett 135). We unfairly attribute to entire groups traits that we have seen in only a small fraction of that population. This is done quickly, efficiently, and almost automatically, as our brains construct a perception of reality that is based on catalogues of past experiences. This is why we are able to act in ways that appear biased, even though we hold beliefs that conflict with these biases. These concepts are difficult to dispel because they seem reflexive, as your brain is very good at predicting and choosing the most fitting concept to match a situation. <\/p>\n
Barrett also writes that many of the concepts we hold come from passed down information and not from something we have experienced ourselves, \u201cWe live in social groups\u2026 We can therefore amass information across generations\u2014 stories, recipes, traditions, anything that we can describe\u2014 that helps each generation to shape the brain wiring of the next,\u201d (Barrett 144). We internalize beliefs that are passed down about specific groups of people and take them as true because they have been around longer than we have been alive. Barrett says, \u201cOur ability to create culture comes from evolution, and culture is partially a system of goal-based concepts that helps us manage ourselves and others,\u201d (Barrett 144). Our ability to create culture and social realities helps us to stay safe and alive, but it can also be a detriment if we allow it to go unchecked. <\/p>\n
Without our brain\u2019s ability to make unconscious decisions, we would spend all of our energy evaluating every choice we face daily. Barrett states that our brain creates perceptions of the world by categorizing things into groups and making concepts. I believe that this idea is compatible with and explains the phenomenon of implicit biases and why people might react in racially-charged fashions that do not reflect what they claim to believe. This is in no way meant to be a defense of these individuals, but an explanation of how our brains craft perceptions that do not match our realities. Barrett\u2019s view on constructivism and the creation of concepts is a plausible explanation for why we outwardly act in biased manners when we do not believe we hold biased ideas. It is obvious that implicit biases are pervasive, difficult to detect, and even more difficult to conquer. However, it is important that we see it as a battle worth fighting and a topic discussing. If we do not work to overturn our implicitly racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. biases, then these concepts will continue to reproduce themselves and we will find ourselves effectively in collusion with them. <\/p>\n
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: the Secret Life of the Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.
\nKhan, Amina. \u201cGetting Killed by Police Is a Leading Cause of Death for Young Black Men in America.\u201d Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2019, www.latimes.com\/science\/story\/2019-08-15\/police-shootings-are-a-leading-cause-of-death-for-black-men.
\n\u201cUnderstanding Implicit Bias.\u201d Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, kirwaninstitute.osu.edu\/research\/understanding-implicit-bias\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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