bias, association, and the culture of encounter

• implicit bias: the attitudes, stereotypes, experiences, cultural upbringings, life events, etc. that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner

implicit association test

• developed by Harvard
• measures Cognitive Association: the connection of events, concepts, ideas, experiences and mental states within the brain
  • Cognitive Association often is connected to human bias as it reveals what one’s brain associates with whatever it is presented
  • Cognitive Association and bias occur often unconsciously and is developed through attitudes, stereotypes, experiences, cultural upbringings, life experiences, etc. that we interact with in our daily lives
• our brains work by grouping things and naturally some things and people fall into groups that connect with us while others do not
• empathy gap: a gap which exists between those who do and don’t fall into the groups we associate with ourselves
  • are there people you don’t care as much about?
  • gaps can be racial, socioeconomic, political, etc.
• humans are not good at judging themselves or determining their own unfairness/bias

building the culture of encounter through discipleship

• reminder: discipleship defines everything done in an effort to follow Jesus through the pillars of prayer, detachment and service

  • prayer: communication of one’s heart to God, surrender of one’s will to God, resting in God’s love and peace
  • through this, we seek to achieve discern what truly is the ultimate good, not just the apparent good
  • detachment: willful refraining of luxuries in order to surrender attachment and allow for change
  • through this, we seek to reduce our usage/consumption of or abstain entirely from something in order to help others and grow in our own connection with God
  • service: the action of helping; revealing God’s love to the world
  • service is a physical response to eliminate the needs or desires of those around us by providing them

• the purpose of our lives is to be disciples of Christ, caring, through mercy and justice, for the physical and spiritual needs of everyone around us so that we, and they, may go to Heaven and return to the Father someday.

• to do this, we must overcome bias and any other barriers that prevent us from acting and, as a result,  further the globalization of indifference

• our efforts in this class, and with our lives, is to promote and build the culture of encounter through our prayer, detachment and service

• the culture of encounter seeks to

  • limit the othering effect (making every person see each other as a whole individual and child of God, not as a one-dimensional thing or just a member of a certain group)
  • note that to fully know and accept, and thus love, others, we must acknowledge their membership in certain groups etc., but know that this does not define their entire identity
  • build compassion and critical empathy
  • we want to encourage understanding of others and take tangible action to improve their situations
  • grow our relationship with God
  • through loving the dear neighbor, we can better prepare ourselves to love God and get to know Him on a deeper level than we would otherwise be able
  • if we can see God’s work in action, and take part in it ourselves, we can understand Him more!

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