Is There a Bias in Our Brains?

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"It's almost impossible as a human to not have our brains function this way. Brains notice things, and it category things," he says. "Where we run into trouble is when those result in us responding to another person not as an individual but as a day dream or hallucination"

Jessica Nordell is an award-winning author, science writer, and speaker known for blending rigorous science with compassionate humanity. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many others. She is the recipient of a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television, was named a Best New Poet by Tracy K. Smith, and was a 2022 featured speaker at SXSW.

In this episode, Eric and Jessica discuss her book, The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias.

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Jessica Nordell and I Discuss How to Overcome Unconscious Bias and…

Her book, The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias
What bias is and how prevalent it is
Her personal experience being on the receiving end of another person’s bias
Homophily
The implecations of prejudice being a habit and a result of conditioning
How labels and categorizing plant seeds of bias
Ways to lessen the impact of categories on our perspectives
Why being “color blind” can be so harmful to people (despite the well-meaning approach)
Taking on more and broader perspectives helps us better understand the world
Seeing the groups we don’t belong to as just as complex as our own group
The fundamental attribution error
The role of empathy in dissolving biases
Hyper-objects