{"id":1985,"date":"2020-10-18T02:41:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T02:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/?page_id=1985"},"modified":"2022-10-06T10:09:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T10:09:01","slug":"lla6","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/live-like-an-aristotelian-week\/lla6\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 6 – Virtue and Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Day 6:<\/b>
Virtue and Bias<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Live Like an Aristotelian<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Background<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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What, then, or what sort of thing, is deliberate choice (prohairesis<\/em>), since it is none of the ones we mentioned. To be sure, it is something voluntary, apparently, although not everything voluntary is deliberately chosen. Well, is it something reached by prior deliberation at least? For deliberate choice involves reason and thought and even its name (prohairesis<\/em>) seems to indicate something\u2019s being chosen (haireton<\/em>) before (pro<\/em>) other things.<\/span>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0Aristotle, <\/span>Nicomachean Ethics\u00a0III.2<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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As we\u2019ve seen when examining Aristotle\u2019s ethical theory, much of an education in virtue according to his view depends on habituating ourselves to act virtuously. Now, suppose you\u2019re a person who aspires to be just and kind in your dealings with others. On Aristotle\u2019s view, you become just and kind by repeatedly doing just and kind things, and by doing them with pleasure.<\/span><\/p>

The problem is that habituated action of this sort may not be enough for virtuous action: we now know things about human behavior and the way our minds work to conclude that most of us have biases and predispositions we\u2019re unaware of, perhaps inculcated by our upbringing and culture, the influence of the media, groupthink, or other sources. So what may seem to us to be the just and kind thing to do could in fact (through no conscious motive of our own) fall short of actually being the just and kind thing to do, because of the way implicit and unconscious attitudes influence our actions.<\/span><\/p>

Does Aristotle\u2019s ethical theory have the resources to deal with the problem of implicit bias? Well, here is where his criterion of deliberate choice (prohairesis<\/i>) in the quote above may come in. According to Aristotle\u2019s view of ethical action, the \u201ccause\u201d of virtue lies in \u201cwhat is up to us\u201d (NE<\/i> III.3, 1112a): the ability to engage in independent choice. Since he does not have a worked-out view of the power of the unconscious mind and its effects on human action, it\u2019s unlikely Aristotle ever imagined the possibility of implicit bias and its effect on our choices. But once we recognize how our actions may be biased, can that knowledge empower us individually to make better choices? And at the level of politics, could it lead us to think about more structural changes to institutions in our societies?<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Today's Exercise<\/b><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Today\u2019s assignment consists of two parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part 1<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

Your first task is to become more familiar with the research and literature surrounding \u201cimplicit bias.\u201d Here is the introduction to an article on the subject from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Research on \u201cimplicit bias\u201d suggests that people can act on the basis of prejudice and stereotypes without intending to do so. While psychologists in the field of \u201cimplicit social cognition\u201d study consumer products, self-esteem, food, alcohol, political values, and more, the most striking and well-known research has focused on implicit biases toward members of socially stigmatized groups, such as African-Americans, women, and the LGBTQ community. For example, imagine Frank, who explicitly believes that women and men are equally suited for careers outside the home. Despite his explicitly egalitarian belief, Frank might nevertheless behave in any number of biased ways, from distrusting feedback from female co-workers to hiring equally qualified men over women. Part of the reason for Frank\u2019s discriminatory behavior might be an implicit gender bias. Psychological research on implicit bias has grown steadily, raising metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical questions.<\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Some of you may be aware of a research project run by a group of social psychologists at Harvard University who study implicit bias. This project, called “Project Implicit,” includes a website on which participants can take a variety of “Implicit Association Tests” (IATs) that purport to measure implicit biases and attitudes\u00a0towards gender, age, sexuality, religion, weight, skin-tone, and so on.<\/span>\u00a0(For some background to the project, see <\/span>here<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>

The most well known of these IATs measures bias on\u00a0the\u00a0basis of race. Take a version of that test by clicking <\/span>here<\/a> and following the online instructions. The test is totally anonymous and should take no longer than five minutes. It’s best to complete it on a computer rather than on a phone, and in a space\u00a0where\u00a0you won’t be distracted.<\/span><\/p>

One frequent criticism of the IATs is that they do not\u00a0reliably predict an individual person’s behavior. However you feel about this, the results of these tests seem to correlate well with group-level<\/i> behavior, as <\/span>the psychologists Keith Payne and Laura Niemi and the philosopher John Doris explain in the following excerpt from an essay for<\/span>\u00a0Scientific American<\/i><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Most measures in psychology, from aptitude tests to personality scales, are useful for predicting how groups will respond on average, not forecasting how particular individuals will behave. … Implicit bias researchers have always warned against using the tests for predicting individual outcomes, such as how a particular manager will behave in job interviews\u2014they\u2019ve never been in the palm-reading business. What the IAT does, and does well, is predict average outcomes across larger entities like counties, cities or states. For example, metro areas with greater average implicit bias have larger racial disparities in police shootings. And counties with greater average implicit bias have larger racial disparities in infant health problems. These correlations are important: the lives of Black citizens and newborn Black babies depend on them. <\/span>(Read the full essay here<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This is significant because test results <\/span>focusing on people’s responses to IATs in the aggregate<\/span> have proven highly stable and longstanding over several years<\/span>. The charts below summarize the data collected on IATs <\/span>over more than a decade, <\/span>measuring participants’ attitudes towards race, gender, and sexual orientation (click image for full size):<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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These distribution results have remained steady over time and their durability suggests that the effects of implicit attitudes across population-level samples can be considerable, as studies that have examined racial bias in the fields of medicine<\/a> and law<\/a> have indeed found.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part 2<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For the rest of today, continue the training regimen you\u2019ve begun this week by exercising your two chosen virtues and completing your virtue logs, but now considered in light of the issue of implicit bias. If you took the race-based IAT and believe you\u2019re part of the small percentage of respondents to this test who don\u2019t show an automatic preference for one racial group or another, consider the statistics represented in the charts above: almost seven out of ten of all test-takers show some automatic preference for White people compared with Black people; seven out of ten of all test-takers associate men more strongly with science and women more strongly with the liberal arts; and over six out of ten of all test-takers show some automatic preference for straight people compared with gay people. As you seek out the “medial condition” of virtue today, think about how the phenomenon of implicit bias and its effects on a systemic level may affect your feelings, choices, and actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once you’ve completed the assigned exercise for today, click here<\/a> to access the prompt for tonight\u2019s reflection<\/strong> and to submit your 1-2 paragraph journal entry.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to Live Like an Aristotelian Week<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 6:Virtue and Bias Live Like an Aristotelian Background What, then, or what sort of thing, is deliberate choice (prohairesis), since it is none of the ones we mentioned. To be sure, it is something voluntary, apparently, although not everything voluntary is deliberately chosen. Well, is it something reached by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":1105,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1985","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1985"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6146,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1985\/revisions\/6146"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingagoodlife.com\/fall2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}