Implicit Bias: A Christian perspective

            Our brains are continually pattern-recognizing, observing stereotypes, and making generalizations. These ordinary, benign brain functions can also cause bias, which is widely referred to as implicit bias. Implicit Bias (IB) differs from explicit bias as the former is an unconscious attitude, preference, thought or feeling that may result in an action. For example, the tragic incident involving a 25-year-old black man named Ahmaud Aubery jogging in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick in Glen county, GA, was assumed to be a burglary suspect on the run was most likely resulted due to IB. Implicit bias is prejudice[1]; as such, it violates the sixth commandment and contradicts Jesus’ command to love thy neighbor (Lk.10:25-28). How can we understand and respond to IB biblically?

            IB is an alien thought as the one injected by the Enemy into the minds of our first parents, who have only experienced the shalom[2] in the very presence of God in Eden. Strangely, Adam and Eve subconsciously felt they were being deprived of something good in God’s prohibition from the tree amid the Garden. Thus, God becomes the first-ever victim of IB, even as unbelief infects humanity in the Fall. Instead of believing in God, Alief becomes humans' default state of mind (Rom.1:19-20). Alief in psychology and philosophy is an automatic and habitual attitude that stands in tension with explicit beliefs, responsible for several belief-behavior discordances, including IB, phobias, fictional emotions, and bad habits[3]. Therefore, one can argue IB is at the root of human rebellion.

            IB is complicated as the agent of IB remains unwilling and unable to report it. Are agents of IB genuinely unaware of their biases? Some scholars assert, based on evidence, that agents possess partial awareness[4]. In the Old Testament, contradictory beliefs or cognitive dissonance[1] are prevalent among wayward Judahites (Jer.17:9-10). Our daily Christian walk marked by the often-inexplicable struggle between faith and unbelief (here akin to alief) further affirms this behavioral-belief contradiction.

Some IB measures, such as the IAT – Implicit Association Test, make people aware and curtail its effects. These implicit measures are helpful in self-identifying IBs to predict group behavior on average, but they cannot predict individual behavior.

Does IB create a conflict between what we know and what we value? Social categorization is a fundamental human brain function. Our intentional self-censorship based on ethical grounds makes it impossible for agents to be rational and equitable[5]. Apostle Paul in Titus 1:12 seemingly stereotypes – ‘Cretans are always liars…’, while mentioning it is not him who is making such a claim, but one of their prophets. Also, Paul says the criticism strengthens their faith (v.13) not to cast them as intractable.

Change based-interventions such as intergroup contact and counter-stereotype exposure are introduced to overcome IB. Christianity offers the most diverse community-building faith system there in the world with a call to make disciples of all nations (Matt.28:19-20). Jesus Christ came to the earth to reconcile man to God and heal the fractured humanity.

In the story of the tower of Babel, and subsequently, in the call of Abraham (Gen.11-12), we see God’s judgment, mercy, and redemption, through God’s promise to bless all nations. Despite this revelation, the Hebrew nation claims a monopoly on God’s blessing and builds a wall of separation to keep the Gentiles outside the temple. Addressing this issue, Tim Keller says human sin turns the gift of God into racial prejudice. Still, God radically reverses this racial exclusivity by breaking down the wall of separation through Christ (Eph.2:11-22). The book of Acts narrates the emergence of an incredibly diverse community of believers called ‘Christians’ (Acts 11:26) through the power of the Holy Spirit based on the miracle of Christ’s resurrection.  

While on earth, Jesus told many parables to illustrate God’s kingdom and its nature. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a classic counter-stereotype exposure that shocked the Jewish lawyer who asked Jesus, ‘who is my neighbor?’

The Bible is not silent on addressing sin and its effects. It commands us to repent of our sins while holding us morally responsible, especially for our attitudes and actions towards our neighbors created in God’s image endowed with dignity and the beauty of diversity.

Christian worship and liturgy provide healing and change for our IBs toward our neighbors; they restore our relationship with God and others. The celebration of the Lord’s supper with bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ not only commemorates the sacrificial death of Christ for our redemption but also unites us to Christ and one another in the body of Christ, with all its diversity through Christ’s spiritual presence. It removes alief and restores belief.

 

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[1] John Frame, Doctrine of Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ, P&R Publishing, 2008), 663. Prejudice means judging or evaluating someone before such judgement is appropriate.

[2] Wholeness, wellness

[3] Tamar Szabό Gendtler, Alief and Belief, (The Journal of Philosophy, 105(10), 2008), 634-663

[4] Ibid

[5] Tamar Szabό Gendtler, On the epistemic costs of implicit bias, (Philosophical

Studies, 156, 2011) 33–63.