tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71992651578510583012024-03-17T20:02:40.997-07:00Cultural IntelligenceWhy we feel, think, decide, and buy.Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-68127804766912791192024-03-14T19:38:00.000-07:002024-03-14T19:38:21.221-07:00In and Out: Group Bias<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnhqxnORz43UjUQ6LuzSMnYISCdFlWcURDBLLmk-v6v02kn7-3wGTDUZlQliir4DCJ_qsmmV18iTVXAZEE9DocFGWRaKqM6Bm3RBqewdKfNLqjQPk5bHT3oPCuy9zDyQIfE-QmvFY5qZdAmrDgmHtCjFwEfGQH7eaBT2QbbZxcIDibMTIY_UYkDHTHGoo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="975" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnhqxnORz43UjUQ6LuzSMnYISCdFlWcURDBLLmk-v6v02kn7-3wGTDUZlQliir4DCJ_qsmmV18iTVXAZEE9DocFGWRaKqM6Bm3RBqewdKfNLqjQPk5bHT3oPCuy9zDyQIfE-QmvFY5qZdAmrDgmHtCjFwEfGQH7eaBT2QbbZxcIDibMTIY_UYkDHTHGoo" width="320" /> </a></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #101010; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11pt;">“A
prejudice, unlike a simple misconception, is actively resistant to all evidence
that would unseat it." --</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #101010; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11pt;">Gordon W. Allport, Psychologist</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Us v. Them</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a social psychology experiment, subjects formed two
groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not based on gender, politics,
age, race, education, wealth, or anything so salient to identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two groups were divided solely on one
criterion: whether their birthdays fell on even or odd days of the
calendar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not even on astrological sign,
or year, or season--just either/or numbers, 1 through 31.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Laboratory experiments have shown how easy it can be to
create group identity as well as group divisions that line up loyalties to one
group and hostility toward another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
identification reinforces the differences between <i>us</i> and <i>them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Favoritism for our group, bias against theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neuroeconomists George A. Akerlof and Robert
J. Shiller, in their review of such experiments, said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Even in this division, where the
groups are totally pallid and meaningless, subjects who were born on the even
days of the month showed a preference toward fellow evens and bias against
odds, and odd subjects showed preference toward fellow odds and bias against
their rival evens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even Dr. Seuss has
also gotten into the act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His <i>Butter
Battle Book</i> depicts the Great War that ensues between those who prefer
their bread butter side up and those who prefer it butter side down (pp.
158-59, <i>Animal Spirits</i>, 2009).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Blue v. Brown<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A well-publicized example of in- and out-group bias is Jane
Elliott’s “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes 1968 exercise in an Iowa public school,
following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This activist wanted her class to understand
what discrimination really feels like--at first hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accordingly, Elliott divided her all-white third-grade
classroom into blue-eyed versus brown-eyed students, rotating favored status
between them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the first day, the blue
eyes were told they were smarter, nicer, and better than brown eyes. They were
given special privileges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Results were
instant:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the stigmatized group was
marginalized by the favored group, shunned, talked about prejudicially, shamed,
and otherwise humiliated—while their tormentors’ own grades improved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a name="_Hlk157983915"><o:p></o:p></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk157983915;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal">The two groups stopped playing together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For their part, brown-eyed kids isolated
themselves during recess to avoid the blue-eyed scourge, acting intimidated and
despondent, while their grades suffered. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The following day, the brown eyes were favored
in the same way, with like results, just reversed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the odd / even birthdates experiment showed,
any trait, including eye color, birthdates, and bread-buttering, can be employed
to direct bad behavior towards others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, as a critique, Elliott’s use of eye color has a
strong correlation with ethnicity (not exclusively, just correlated).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The choice of eye color is not a neutral
factor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This choice of difference linked
her classroom groups to in- and out-groups outside, as they operated in the
wider sphere of race stigma--except when the brown eyes were shifted to the top
rank over blue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Said Elliott about her
experiment, “<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">You are not born racist. You are
born into a racist society. And like anything else, if you can learn it, you
can unlearn it. But some people choose not to unlearn it, because they're
afraid they'll lose power if they share with other people. We are afraid of
sharing power. That's what it's all about.</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Language and species<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Related to the classroom treatment are
studies that show female teachers favor girls over boys, to the detriment of
boys’ academic achievement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language
mastery—a strong pro-bias for teachers in general—comes earlier to girls than
to boys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dyslexic students are
especially disfavored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Middle-class
students, already more successful than lower- or lower-middle, are also favored,
as language is correlated positively with class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus a cultural advantage, that of speech, is
routinely enhanced through nurturing by teachers—favoring those already versed
and skilled as speakers, listeners, readers, and writers by their home
environments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Efforts to transmit this class-based
literacy face an uphill struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The story is told in Hollywood about the bias of the <i>Planet
of the Apes</i> (“a planet where apes evolved from men”) cast member for their
own kind, as the denizens of the post-apocalyptic ape planet in costume gravitated
on their own preference to sit down to lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each type sought out the bench seated with their own ape species –
chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, or humans. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anti-stigma traits are favored as a sign of ultimate fitness—for
example, marriageability. Traits valued are especially:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>beauty, fitness and health, vitality (at any
age), bilateral symmetry, social graces, competence (a good earner, organized
thinker), caring behavior, non-criminal, and lack of negative mental states
(neurodiversity). (Plato declared “Beauty is a natural superiority.”)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Salient features of human divisions are age, gender, and
race – but primarily age and gender, since definitions of race shift within and
between cultures (German and Italian, for example, were considered races within
earlier American culture).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The winners
and losers effect reflects the ongoing outcomes of class divisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the evolutionary hierarchies in wild
baboons are perpetuated across generations of winners, who most often dominate,
and losers, who are most often dominated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Height estimation goes with
dominance and prestige, with observers in the lab estimating higher status for
taller men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More muscular men are seen
as more dominant as well, whatever their actual social status (Mark van Vagt,
Dutch evolutionary psychologist). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Cultural fitness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The aspirational drive to attain a higher social status—an
expression of fitness-- appears to be universal across all human populations
and cultures (Peter Erdi, <u>Ranking</u>, 2020). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is, naturally, an impulse consistently shifted
by competition between individuals and their groups, especially when stigma is agreed
and applied by the mainstream in which they must operate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s infamous Stanford Prison
Experiment of 1971 studied the effects of power and powerlessness in a
simulated prison cellblock set to run over two weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twenty-four Stanford students were randomly
assigned roles either as wardens and guards or as prisoners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the extent of the abuse meted out by
the “guards” on the “inmates” called for the experiment to be terminated early,
after only six days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The prisoners began
to show extreme signs of stress and de-individualization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A humanitarian graduate student pointed out
to Zimbardo (who was playing a warden himself) the actual psychic damage being done
to real human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Stanford study
remains a landmark example of abuse based on a role-playing exercise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The parallels to Elliott’s exercise with eye
color are all too apparent. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-33367885168087122812024-02-02T13:40:00.000-08:002024-02-06T10:22:46.916-08:00Division of Labor: Excelling v. Extinction<p> “When
the whole man is involved there is no work.
Work begins with the division of labor.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 6;"> </span>--Marshall
McLuhan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> </o:p><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;">W</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">hite House kitchen staff division of labor</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Economist Michael Kremer posed a cultural equation in which shared
ideas, free as a public good, begin to be exchanged and grown across space and
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As populations expanded, “more
people, more ideas,” the higher concentrations gave rise to culture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Over the centuries, population growth and technological
change have expanded, including the division of labor (time and talent) that is
the hallmark of the world’s great civilizations, marked by the growth of cities
as wealth centers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In fact, one of the great contrasts between the now-extinct
Neanderthals and our species--homo sapiens--is this very ability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Labor division allocates resources between those
with differing skillsets and the time to learn and perfect them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also what distinguishes talent in many
arenas from those less talented, leading to status and class divisions. But the
Neanderthal home showed no dedicated spaces there, nor any evidence of trading goods
and behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even their hunter-gatherer behavior seemed to be evenly
distributed between men and women (Tim Harford, <u>The Logic of Life</u>, (2008)
p. 208-09):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This original division of
labor, between male and female, is quite ancient as a shared tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Today’s simple hunter-gatherer societies
divide tasks between the sexes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men hunt
big game and not much else; women hunt small animals, gather berries and nuts,
make clothes, and look after the kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Early humans, too, seem to have divided jobs between hunters and
gatherers, presumably along the same lines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neanderthals, apparently, did not.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nor do we know if they had language, indispensable to
trading information between or within groups, and record-keeping of assignments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language and its concepts are essential to
cooperation and role designation as well as task assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference may be genetic. Reported in <u>Science</u>
in 2022 (Sept. 9) is the discovery of a gene mutation in our species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This mutation signals the development of extra
neurons in the frontal neocortex that greatly enhance connectivity. This TKTL1
gene is lacking in all previous hominids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Homo sapiens’ birth might come down to this single unique trait.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Division of labor is not as simple as dealing out work to be
done equally by effort and hours, but applying the principle of diversity to
project and process, both simple and complex—from building huts to bridges to
cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using the idea of comparative
advantage, any group effort leverages the various capabilities within the group
(the job of management expertise), including skills, age, gender, ability,
experience, strengths, aptitudes, and weaknesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The project is taken apart with a view to
splitting subtasks so that they can be assigned by talent as well as time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Expertise is developed as a cultural tradition: craft, battle,
agriculture, hunting, exploration, planning, engineering, building, language,
the arts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Childcare and foraging were
classical women’s work, whereas menfolk specialized in hunting, defense,
exploration, and leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human
resources is ideally the science of understanding human capabilities and
allocating them in the most productive way (beyond just signing up insurance
plans).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The wealth of cities consists in their ability to instantly draw
upon large arrays of these specialized traditions, putting these to work in
organized group form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizing human
talent and skill, beyond just tool-making or invention, is the basis of any
civilized order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the division of domestic
spaces designated for separate activities is evidence of thinking in terms of
labor division and the special needs of any specific job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From Egypt onward, homes showed the
first-discovered spaces dedicated to leisure pursuits alone, diffusing throughout
the human indoor landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
Neanderthal case, low populations, besides keeping cities in the future, also stymied
the technological innovations that generate the cross-fertilized energy and
growth of cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Failure to think in this way might be the reason behind the
fading of Neanderthals, our close cousins, as they become superseded by homo
sapiens 40,000 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harford
speculates that this approach to working was not evident from the Neanderthal
record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Division of labor was theorized by French social philosopher
Emile Durkheim (1893) to correlate to the moral and communal power of groups to
be productive and influential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This mentality
was the way humans were not only able to survive but to thrive as well as
prevail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another expression of labor
division is trade, sharing resources by relocation and speculation by importing
novelty and specialization (a kind of cultural arbitrage)—evidence also absent from
the Neanderthal record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trade also underlies our social nature as a formalized
endeavor between unrelated groups—a necessary parallel to the exogamy of
marriage and mating between unlike genetic pools. “Computer simulations show
that the propensity to track, barter, and exchange could easily have allowed
humans to wipe out Neanderthals in a few thousand years, even if the typical
Neanderthal was faster and stronger and perhaps smarter, too" (Hartford p. 208).
While 99.7% of genetic material is shared by modern humans and Neanderthals—more
closely related than chimpanzees—we diverged over half a million years ago from
the last common ancestor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The DNA record
also shows evidence of incestuous mating in these late relatives. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And of course, these labor divisions are far from equal in
either their demands or rewards, further dividing the merit landscape that says
which groups can aspire to and occupy roles in the professions, politics,
celebrity, athletics and in the arts, crafts, and letters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Americans meet for the first time, our
first question is “What do you do?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
are looking for clues to background, merit, aspiration, and status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are, on the scale of world cultures,
closely identified with our careers as an index to our background, class, and
potential. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our places in work role
diversity are equally important a social index as ethnicity, education, and
earnings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-78917217337136511512024-01-18T11:39:00.000-08:002024-01-18T12:26:09.812-08:00Small Bias – Big Effects<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgj_U8yNWhNmhNXpyqdhAXFQmmUoCv4JsoRqTDZh1AuUToIDb6Ddd5STlxSSE20tzz63PawXVHU3_a6t6LfwGIRdmFSMPcMD36xsdVLOKGTZUHQncso1TIKT6yNB2a2XTYfAJjGIdo7phTqlCdvymDkDKEjSC4bU_ohwZvRNLJMHktxJ7IrYfaKs4Pnn00" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgj_U8yNWhNmhNXpyqdhAXFQmmUoCv4JsoRqTDZh1AuUToIDb6Ddd5STlxSSE20tzz63PawXVHU3_a6t6LfwGIRdmFSMPcMD36xsdVLOKGTZUHQncso1TIKT6yNB2a2XTYfAJjGIdo7phTqlCdvymDkDKEjSC4bU_ohwZvRNLJMHktxJ7IrYfaKs4Pnn00" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7VNk5f5PlZorGAB3anMNUWPcP62R8nHQv2y3v8EQsEgaxyNPdIoKqmzvp0Vx-aVDcAu8Y3C4BZj-XwpMPDLGER0rD5iltp4V06mlSgP3GzB_1bOWKwZjlfN2pOfI2JLyklftTDIUFJLxhkrHaA--B8aIk_g9ByKbBotvP3UVrHgIax-GJCwwCRyaVnGc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="1280" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7VNk5f5PlZorGAB3anMNUWPcP62R8nHQv2y3v8EQsEgaxyNPdIoKqmzvp0Vx-aVDcAu8Y3C4BZj-XwpMPDLGER0rD5iltp4V06mlSgP3GzB_1bOWKwZjlfN2pOfI2JLyklftTDIUFJLxhkrHaA--B8aIk_g9ByKbBotvP3UVrHgIax-GJCwwCRyaVnGc=w400-h208" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We associate the term bias with “bias against,” but not so
often “bias towards,” or pro bias. But
in a famous simulation by economist Thomas Schelling, it is the pro bias,
or general preference, that can finally create an outcome of de facto segregation
of housing. People feel more comfortable in the company of people like themselves.
It is not so much a matter of what they
look like as how they think. Shared values,
which in this case means a mindset of assumptions - values<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> collectively accepted as true - trumps everything else,
regardless of other differences. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here is the way this pro bias operates to create housing
choice—where people choose to live based on what group the neighbors belong to,
as described by economist Tim Harford in <u>The Logic of Life</u> (2008).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">People are happy to live in mixed
neighborhoods until they are outnumbered 2 to 1, or one-third of the area
population, using a chessboard as a model of an integrated society of households.
As white pieces get too many black neighbors (and vice-versa), a wave of segregation washes over the board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chess
pieces surrounded by too many of the opposition move away, and doing so consolidates
a picture of black homogeneity and white homogeneity (p.111).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This process of a simple rule about preference for living in
a place not too dominated by the “other side” was first modelled by Schelling,
a game theorist who wondered what kind of social behavior could be explained
by game theory: what happened when a single person moved to avoid being
socially isolated (Schelling won the Noble Prize in 2005 by pursuing this
question).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Schelling’s chessboard models showed that all it takes is a
mild preference against being too heavily outnumbered…. Pessimists would point
out that his model suggests that extreme segregation is almost inevitable”
(Harford, p. 115).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some claim that as little as a 10% incursion by a different group is enough to launch an avalanche of movers
away (“white flight”) and thereby toward a more homogeneous settlement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By following the outcome of game theory
simulations, we can see that final outcomes can be unexpected, unintended, and
perhaps even less than desired by any and all players.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</u> opens its definition of
Game Theory with this statement:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #1a1a1a;">Game theory is the study of the ways in which <em><span face=""Aptos",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">interacting choices</span></em> of <em><span face=""Aptos",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">economic agents</span></em> produce <em><span face=""Aptos",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">outcomes</span></em> with respect to
the <em><span face=""Aptos",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">preferences</span></em> (or <em><span face=""Aptos",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">utilities</span></em>) of those agents, where
the outcomes in question might have been intended by none of the agents (Sept.
3, 2023 ed.).</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What appears to be an anti-bias against those different from
ourselves can be seen, at the same time, not as an inbred prejudice against
those unlike us but as a pro-bias preference for living among those whom we
better relate to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Flexing the reward
system for “otherness” into some sort of affinity for those unlike
ourselves can dull or nullify the expected social effects of housing location, if
these rewards operate within the value bias of the group. Class can overcome race, for example.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">College towns and tourist destinations display a greater mix
of ethnic types based on a common bond as middle-class. And at the Disney parks,
an enclave of highly mixed types and origins, race is rarely an issue because the park is recognized as a safe space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gay
enclaves are known for both mixing and stabilizing what were once lower-end
city districts, because gays generally do not need to prioritize good school
districts in their housing agenda. Their social lives also generate more public
safety by keeping streets and bistros busy well into the evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Harford’s book offers several related examples of large
effects from small biases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Some d</span>epend on time of day and weather. For example, public playgrounds such as Hackney Downs
in London experience social swings from moms and their children during the day to
the young male teens who move in to dominate after twilight. This incursion
switches the family-friendly sunlit atmosphere to edgy and unwelcoming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The social theme instantly transforms from
warm to cold with the teen “negative externality” transfer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The openness of public space means that more
negative behavior drives out the genteel and middle-class ethic--the ongoing problem with "public" parks.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the same way, a city’s preference for tall building blocks
exerts a bias toward street crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By limiting the effect of “eyes
on the street” that keeps crime rates down by citizen surveillance and
intervention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In areas with eyes at
street level, safety increases as more pedestrians are attracted in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The safety bias is self-sustaining and
positively reinforcing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gay
gentrification promotes such busy, safe, and engaging street dynamics in a
“positive externality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one
reason the middle class, whatever its politics, does not mind gay neighbors--especially homeowners<o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-20064253797805763832023-12-08T13:20:00.000-08:002023-12-10T01:17:10.368-08:00Quotes on Magic and Science<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWEdF8yfnoQ-tx_jAm_6IvYsrIV3JG89CS7-KCBiGDe7ZShG-ok40oKjWDhvgUzOys_yCtwjK6lXd0MpXLpBW_U_K5zA0XgHkj_W6F-0vewxK3UGRSmDTtuNRGd-FaNbMQ-UoUbrFEOzn8pb3kegbMYui5s60-zxQgB0-bXJLrqNDEdeRFVqHhEGGV5A8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="975" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWEdF8yfnoQ-tx_jAm_6IvYsrIV3JG89CS7-KCBiGDe7ZShG-ok40oKjWDhvgUzOys_yCtwjK6lXd0MpXLpBW_U_K5zA0XgHkj_W6F-0vewxK3UGRSmDTtuNRGd-FaNbMQ-UoUbrFEOzn8pb3kegbMYui5s60-zxQgB0-bXJLrqNDEdeRFVqHhEGGV5A8=w314-h314" width="314" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">There are thousands of quotable quotes associated with presidents,
geniuses, educators, athletes, religious and military leaders, great builders,
lawmakers, artists, authors, and actors.
But among these are certain quotations you know immediately to be
false—my current favorite is “The problem with quotes found on the Internet is
that they are often not true,” attributed to Abraham Lincoln.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Of course, that's an obvious joke - unlike a famous
Gandhi quotation, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” that is by many
accounts a misattribution. Yet the
exhortation sounds impressive and true, because it embodies the truths and
actions central to the man in his lifelong activist career. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Truth value is contained in the context of the quotation
itself, which can be judged to be off-center if it references the unknowable
future or contradicts or compromises certified statements by the same
person. As humorous as Abe could be (and
he frequently was), in no way could he have foreseen the advent of digital
communication. (He also said,
referencing his homeliness, “Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing
you this one?” in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But there are cases less clearly resolved. Just last month, Jamie O’Boyle and I
presented in short form our findings on The Disney Effect, in honor of the
centennial of the Walt Disney Company, at the Sixth TEAAS –Themed Experience
& Attractions Academic symposium in Orlando, Florida. Part of our coverage
was about the Disney branding Magic—starting with what magic actually
means. Among our citations was science-fiction
writer Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his consulting on “2001: A Space
Odyssey.” In one of Clarke’s many media
interviews, he is quoted as remarking “Magic is just science that we don’t
understand yet.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh80jvie5TLgX_X6SCOZRzZh8wii9-p_qQzB22RewNofMwQKzOQVR6rK6aHVc4HAS1nzbCUHTGNlfpY6F3e3owQlXamP4gTnvNryu3IMJ4SMK7B9bit7dWZzJcCFbpxykCF05io3-YJNdDf7s-IzoJL6pz6G9MnkD37MAt34Wu0XYhfqQYzvFDnXEGphK4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"> <span> </span> <img alt="" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="975" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh80jvie5TLgX_X6SCOZRzZh8wii9-p_qQzB22RewNofMwQKzOQVR6rK6aHVc4HAS1nzbCUHTGNlfpY6F3e3owQlXamP4gTnvNryu3IMJ4SMK7B9bit7dWZzJcCFbpxykCF05io3-YJNdDf7s-IzoJL6pz6G9MnkD37MAt34Wu0XYhfqQYzvFDnXEGphK4=w400-h189" width="400" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is where the quote-check issue arose. At one of the seminar tables, a person or
persons objected, raising doubts that Clarke ever made such a statement.* A cursory search later on to review our
sources showed a significant number of citations of this statement, including one
on a T-shirt My suspicion is that this critic
was simply unfamiliar with this version of meaning, assuming it to be a
misquote or falsely attributed--because it did not match the writer’s
better-known and easier to find written quotation, his self-proclaimed Third
Law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Both quotations are freely cited online. There is no misquotation or misattribution to
be resolved. (A misquotation, for
example, would be “Money is the root of all evil,” instead of the actual
phrasing “The love of money is the root of all evil” (Timothy 6:10, King
James). A posing as B. But Clarke’s two quotes are clearly separate,
consistent with one another, and neither is difficult to find. Clarke’s Third
Law, his most famous, comes from <i>Profiles of the Future</i> (1973). The
shorter, pithier one is a paraphrase by the same author that appeared in an Australian
radio interview transcript also treating the future of technology. Spoken word quotations may be harder to
locate and validate than the written kind, but it is often possible. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">However, there is another angle involved here. Our presentation was not a literary study; we
simply cited the “Magic” statement as a way of moving thought forward. The issue is not Arthur C. Clarke’s output or
opinions, but the idea of what magic might be and how it operates. The citation issue must be considered a
sidebar to the theme of the presentation.
This was the legacy of the Disney company and its innovations outside
the parks, operating full force in the world beyond. The quotations was never an issue germane to
our presentation, nor is that why it was featured. Sourcing and authenticity shouldn’t become a
stumbling block to understanding. It is
the idea of magic itself and how its definition is constructed that was central. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps the principle to keep in mind is not to believe
everything you hear at a conference – at a table or behind the lectern - and
especially not if the authenticity inquiry creates a buzzy diversion from the
main topic. Now if Arthur C. Clarke were a
Disney Imagineer? That would be a different matter of fact-checking. </p><p class="MsoNormal">The prolific density of Internet information also means a careful path to truth can be blazed. So always double-check the source of your
quotes and keep in mind those profound, albeit fake, words of Abraham Lincoln: “The problem
with quotes found on the Internet is that they are often not true.” </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXC79jSnUL-7pQrwiBmn3cJaM5-PVbqEdn-2NubNQcxAfLL5ZlGm84I_HkdNsBSsmGQ6bODjmTsF2eCJiIHRMuJK9sw5jFxt8auNdRZE4qurqqku5oF0A2xok34hC5FdiZ85YZI9TluurLzbxmcC26h94z8gb55A4wMjGyKdhTiiidOsOZdMaz1R2O1ME" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="750" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXC79jSnUL-7pQrwiBmn3cJaM5-PVbqEdn-2NubNQcxAfLL5ZlGm84I_HkdNsBSsmGQ6bODjmTsF2eCJiIHRMuJK9sw5jFxt8auNdRZE4qurqqku5oF0A2xok34hC5FdiZ85YZI9TluurLzbxmcC26h94z8gb55A4wMjGyKdhTiiidOsOZdMaz1R2O1ME=w345-h345" width="345" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">*Thanks to friend and colleague Kile Ozier for bringing this issue to my attention.</p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-78638565345341642532023-11-26T05:29:00.000-08:002023-11-26T05:29:52.164-08:00Slate Magazine interview, "The Davy Crockett Craze," August 31, 2023<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://slate.com/podcasts/one-year/s5/1955/e2/davy-crockett-craze-1955-walt-disney-television-movies-disneyland">https://slate.com/podcasts/one-year/s5/1955/e2/davy-crockett-craze-1955-walt-disney-television-movies-disneyland</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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Advertising: T Brand Studio seeking a psychologist or sociologist who can provide deeper scientific context on why
people avoid having financial conversations, especially the inheritance talk,
why talking about money triggers stress and how to start having these critical conversations. We'll also talk specifically about the inheritance talk
and why the lack thereof can cause turmoil among family members (Sept. 12, 2023
email).</p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"We’re never really taught that we
have to think about our work before we can do it…Thinking in a concentrated
manner to define desired outcomes and requisite next actions is something few
people feel they have to do (until they HAVE to). But in truth, it is the most effective means
available for making wishes a reality." ---David Allen,
productivity expert, </span><i style="font-weight: normal;">Getting Things Done (</i><span style="font-weight: normal;">2015)</span> </h4></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span class="hgkelc"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #040c28; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“The Baby
Boomer generation is expected to leave a significant amount of money to their
Millennial children</span></span><span class="hgkelc"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">. It's estimated that more than $68 trillion will be
bequeathed to their offspring. The great wealth transfer is expected to make
Millennials the richest generation in American history” (<i>Forbes</i>, </span></span></span><span class="kx21rb" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #70757a;"><span style="font-size: small;">Aug. 9, 2023).</span></span></span></h4></blockquote></blockquote><h3 style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: left;"></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cultural values are the shared reality that drives
perception, decision-making, and action (see my website below). Wealth and money are essential to group
well-being. Wealth transfer between
generations takes knowledge, talent, diplomacy, and a wide view of the interests
and rights of others. The stakes are
high. But few have the vision or practice to enter into negotiations with their
parents as well as adult siblings that the inheritance talk requires. </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is largely because money is one of the least-discussed topics in any
relationship – less than sex, religion, or politics. Why? Because finances
are a minefield of uncritical thinking, involving history, status, hope,
regret, self-worth, and how we value our relationships. This may be the reason that only one out of
three people in the US have any estate plan or even a will. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Abe Lincoln died without a will (despite being a
lawyer). He didn’t expect to be
assassinated. Next century: Worth over $500 million today, since his death in 1981, singer
Bob Marley’s complex estate (no will) has attracted dozens of claimants. Jimi Hendrix likewise had an estate missing a will. After his death in 1970, the
battle waged over his assets continued until the end of the century. Howard Hughes died in 1976 at age 70, again,
without a will. Although one was
“discovered” at the Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City, it proved to be a
forgery. Eventually the billionaire’s
holdings were divided among 22 aides, charities, and former lovers. (Source: LegalZoom.com) </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Family life operates by pre-assumptions—those habits of
thinking that are unmindful about how things operate—especially around finances. Very few families can be open and above board
about how funds are managed or allocated. Even less-often shared is the rationale, the WHY behind HOW things operate—investments, expenditures, loans, savings, bequests,
and long- and short-term goals. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Inheritance Talk needs to establish two
things: First is what the family has,
and second, how these assets will be shared out--now and for the future when elder
parents decease. Both topics are hotbeds
of potential conflict and confusion, leading to the need for clarification, correction,
negotiation, and change. This is the time when assumptions are challenged and
family secrets unveiled. None of these is anything family members seek
out. Nevertheless, The Conversation,
freighted as it is with these perils, is essential to moving forward from past
to future. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This complicated talk about family money is far more than a
meeting about numbers. It can’t help
being a judgment on the way Mom and Dad have handled—or failed to handle—assets
and opportunities over time. The
discovery process is legitimate in its need to know how things stand and where
they are headed. Ideally, this scrutiny might
go just fine, showing sound management over decades. But more likely the close examination is
going to reveal some flaws or possibly frauds—answering the question of why
people are generally resistant to this audit process. (We don’t like the IRS inviting us in to talk
taxes, either.) </p><p class="MsoNormal">Faults and
inconsistencies will emerge, which means these can no longer be ignored or
assumed to be unproblematic. And
financial arrangements between parents and siblings will come to light, raising
jealously about favored compared to less-favored kids. This is when you suddenly discover that the
family house will not be sold and divided, but a caretaker child, or one cared for, has been given
the right to live there indefinitely.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Talk makes any assumptions clear and stays the ambiguity. A common example of discovery is favoritism
among adult children and uneven or strange-looking distributions. Suddenly the actual operating assumptions
showcase the unmistakable need to articulate reasoning, make fairness
arguments, assign responsibly and/or blame, and press concerns about the future
needs and rights of offspring (and surviving parents). Now conflict avoidance is no longer possible,
and the truth of things looms directly in the family’s faces, impossible to
ignore. It’s a moment of truth that
often comes too late to save either feelings or finances.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is why it is so critical to make things transparent all
along, with the help of advisors, estate attorney, financial planner, or CPA
and daily money manager providing counsel.
Many parents really do hope they will be spared The Talk and safely gone
before having to do the right thing becomes necessary and unavoidable. But the far better alternative is to get and
keep the financial house in order long before that, getting everyone on the
same page over time, through inevitable ongoing changes in the family
picture. Everyone is aware of this principle. Few see full disclosure practiced.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Financial literacy, the ability to understand and apply
financial concepts to managing personal finances, peaks in the early age 50s,
when fewest mistakes are made. This is
the age when people have “accumulated knowledge and experience about money,
spending and saving, but haven’t begun losing key analytic cognitive skills”
(ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, Australia, 2023). This means adult children are at or approaching
their peak ability to read and repair the family financial landscape, while at the same time, their parents have passed that point and need help, whether
requested or not.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In South Philadelphia where I live, I ran into a
seventy-some man on his way to Italy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His mission is to try to get in writing his ninety-some father’s promise
of properties in that country under Italian law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder how that’s going for them?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo: Pixabay</span></p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-58471020399898429562023-09-14T09:38:00.000-07:002023-09-14T09:38:45.045-07:00The Disney Effect – Themeatics <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Sixty years of crowd management has
made Disney operations the undisputed champion of event control and
coordination….If you’re serious about solving [your traffic] problems, you go
to the Disney Academy at Disney World.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>--
Phil McKinney, innovation expert, <u>Beyond the Obvious</u>, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtVmoK5ixWG7dlpjJQU78OqaCveUhyBVeWzliXmwdfS6zbLKSpDFD3DYCvqM-U2uW-RAOlO4vPCYFr6WbAZlOtI21M3Xy4q1kgzbROYqXu99QMyBk2LNv8T1XDf9Rte0aLBUznW2al1HUAS6GdfPMHoHd4VxpujA09Sl5kSFHpDbsOYx9lnohpofNyc6E" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="975" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtVmoK5ixWG7dlpjJQU78OqaCveUhyBVeWzliXmwdfS6zbLKSpDFD3DYCvqM-U2uW-RAOlO4vPCYFr6WbAZlOtI21M3Xy4q1kgzbROYqXu99QMyBk2LNv8T1XDf9Rte0aLBUznW2al1HUAS6GdfPMHoHd4VxpujA09Sl5kSFHpDbsOYx9lnohpofNyc6E=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>EPCOT:</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Journey into Imagination pavilion</span></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Over the past century, the Disney Corporation has exerted an
outsized effect on popular culture and the popular arts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disney 100, this year’s centennial of the
company’s 1923 founding, is a timely point for taking stock of the “Disney
Effect” across major cultural domains—especially in the domain of “themeatics. “
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Since 1955 at Disneyland, the Ur-theme Park, the Disney model
has guided design basic to the experience economy, acting as centers for
creativity and innovation in the arts and technology, both popular and elite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Themeing has been transforming public space
in both design and use as enlargements of the sphere of entertainment far
“beyond the berm,” most unforeseen and not at all calculated on the part of
D-Co.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My career knowledge in themeatics
(as I’m calling the aggregated skill set that created theme parks) can be put
to work to take a measure of the far-reaching effects of this legacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Themeatics</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> is the unified field theory for the arts, as an artform that
underpins design across fields from architecture to city planning to drama and audience
experience to graphic design. Every aspect of the designed environment has been
informed by the Disney Metropolitan Deco template. Around 150 artistic
subfields, as a conservative estimate (by the late Marty Sklar as President of
Walt Disney Imagineering) can be enumerated; and any artform ever devised, from
ancient to state-of-the-art, can be seen within the fabric of the park design.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Walt Disney himself is considered a master innovator in the
arts (all genres) and technology (high- as well as low-tech), with theme parks
as the incubator enjoying a test audience of millions per month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far from Disney’s initial reputation as an
animator (his true role was as a story editor and creator of the synchronized
sound cartoon) and entertainer of the nation’s children with cartoons and audio
animatronic rides, he headed a studio led by Imagineering (“imagination plus
engineering”) that soon became a center for interdisciplinary creativity and
innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The outcomes transformed
public space and the way it could be used, enlarging the entire scope and influence
of simple entertainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Central to this role was the development of <u>hyperreality</u>
as the ultimate adaptable format for designing as well as experiencing art as a
total-immersion, mixed-media, seamless experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Art and technology became permanently conjoined,
using augmented reality (AR) from digital programs and applications, the basis
of 5-D multi-media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The outcome was
environmental artworks, the most iconic being the theme park, aimed at brains
and bodies of all ages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .7pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hyperreality melds the real with
fantasy and the subconscious so that these become indistinguishable in a new
amalgam—as in the transformation of history on Main Street, USA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Christopher Finch put it in <i>The Art of
Walt Disney</i> as early as the 1970s, “Disneyland and Walt Disney World are
shows—a kind of total theater which exceeds the wildest dreams of avant-garde
dramatists.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hyperreality is a concept
in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of
reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols
invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of consensus reality.
Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which, because of the compression of
perceptions of reality in culture and media, what is generally regarded as real
and what is understood as fiction are seamlessly blended in experiences so that
there is no longer any clear distinction between where one ends and the other
begins. Hyperreality – established within the popular arts as well as the elite
levels--works to integrate emotion, memory, rationality (as art history), and
cultural values for both brain and body. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .75pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Culturally, at the theme parks,
hyperreality acts as the enveloping artform to showcase themes important to cultural
values for Americans; they express those values we most favor about ourselves
and our national heritage: collective imagination (Fantasyland), our shared
vision of the future (Tomorrowland), other people, places, and adventures
important to us (Adventureland), and American history in Frontierland and Main
Street, USA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .75pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At the theme park, the Disney Effect
is an influence in entertainment and edutainment on all fronts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here the distinction between entertainment
(as engagement) and amusement (as diversion) emerges. Disney productions and
their methods are major instigators of the entire Experience Economy identified
by Pine and Gilmore in 1999.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .75pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Further, the <u>Creative Economy</u>,
reflected in the Experience Economy, considers public space a closely designed
and deliberate event-integrated vision--as seen in animation art. The Disney
Imagineering team is cross-functional and interdisciplinary, a template copied
across creative industries, for example in the use of storyboards to diagram
character and action, an aspect of “blue-sky” open-ended idea generation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Disney legacy can be traced through the decades across a
range of creative industries, tools, and technologies that inform the designed
environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theme parks in particular
have become urban labs where concepts can be experienced by millions of
visitors to test viability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Perhaps no other artform innovation
approaches the reach, persistence, and inspiration as clearly as the legacy of
this prototype.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Themeatics is a
hyperreal mix of techniques borrowed from animation and filmmaking rather than
architecture and urban planning: the familiar storyline, identifiable
archetypal style, “not the design of space but the organization of procession”
(architect Philip Johnson); stagecraft, iconography, special effects,
audio-animatronics (3D animation), and color coordination, all led by the
concept of “show” and “enhanced reality” (the late senior Imagineer John Hench’s
term). Themeing is a tightly focused reality made to evoke specific times and
places with strong cultural resonance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">These distillations – from musical cueing and food to landscaping,
lighting, scaling, signage, sound, surface, texture, and smell--play off
perception and collective memory to create “instant moods.” These are achieved
by motifs, layered detail (fractals), and multi-sensory environmental designs,
favoring images over text to tell stories and give emotional direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Inherent in themeing’s sense of place as a theater stage is the legacy of
revival or nostalgia in latter twentieth-century design, and the multi-media
assemblage of artforms and styles from many eras, traversing the evolutionary
range from craft to high-tech.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Such a far-reaching and durable “Disney effect” was unintended and
unanticipated; co-evolving with the unforeseen ascendence of virtual reality as
a new default resulting in hyperreal environments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The theme park model would recreate the real
world both within and outside it, multiplying other worlds as themeatic offshoots.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdcDLKTNAd8iJq9rAT48QTZgLrPxpj_s-gZogKQlAxGbM3283ofog6NtqdKTabDVdqgVgnMSl3_n2jbp1-BzWqtosQTOMWqLXyUbd06F5hR5Q2_2MPOWZAt8pFTq7bgvezb5_ES39nsT5AgP7PW7qyda8KNcjphGFFYcJj3KbT_x_P5Rer11y0n4Vm8Mw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="955" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdcDLKTNAd8iJq9rAT48QTZgLrPxpj_s-gZogKQlAxGbM3283ofog6NtqdKTabDVdqgVgnMSl3_n2jbp1-BzWqtosQTOMWqLXyUbd06F5hR5Q2_2MPOWZAt8pFTq7bgvezb5_ES39nsT5AgP7PW7qyda8KNcjphGFFYcJj3KbT_x_P5Rer11y0n4Vm8Mw=w400-h254" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 2.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Journey
into Imagination photo by J.G. O’Boyle</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-39278117773443634652023-08-07T15:08:00.002-07:002023-08-09T15:01:37.292-07:00The Betty Crocker Legacy: A Century of the Homemaker’s Creed<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvrfnSUwbJ7px8Ijfj2FVSbAS3pbmyl5lZF_bQFB8u-lCSVkqBEQFFEJTclJik5anYxEKttI-w7E8CkC5IBJYhkwoujr7YPG7N-zO_EyUvs0NDMNQCYbqDZH6s_YOkIBpINcCfAerRFHUNxjKYk8ujT4FIBYhIDuFIPbWDmhQ8kZk958Io3DbwHsRp_Io" style="font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="430" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvrfnSUwbJ7px8Ijfj2FVSbAS3pbmyl5lZF_bQFB8u-lCSVkqBEQFFEJTclJik5anYxEKttI-w7E8CkC5IBJYhkwoujr7YPG7N-zO_EyUvs0NDMNQCYbqDZH6s_YOkIBpINcCfAerRFHUNxjKYk8ujT4FIBYhIDuFIPbWDmhQ8kZk958Io3DbwHsRp_Io" width="320" /></a></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in center 3.25in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> Betty</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"> Crocker portraits 1936 – 1996</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This year marks the 150<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of General Mills in Minneapolis, whose face since 1921 was that of the
archetypal homemaker, Betty Crocker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Betty Crocker took shape after Gold Medal Flour ran a contest
in the Saturday Evening Post with a jigsaw puzzle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with the puzzle solutions, entries
included questions from home cooks asking for baking advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Betty was created to provide answers from the
staff of the Gold Medal test kitchen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>William Crocker was the popular company director who inspired the
surname. Betty i</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s an informal family-style
name, but still traditional (nickname for Elizabeth, with Hebrew and English
roots).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The World War II resonance (like
movie headliners Bette Davis and Betty Grable) made a good naming level for a
close family advisor in the kitchen that became a household name.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The interaction with the baking public was an early example
of social media, sampling the public (now called crowd sourcing) as a way to do
market research on women’s issues in cooking, and using that consumer input as
the basis for creating the beloved advisor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Answering letters was already a tool of the company’s public relations
department, but generating a completely new character was innovative marketing
genius.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New to the airwaves, </span><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the first radio cooking show was the “Betty Crocker Cooking
School of the Air” on a Minneapolis station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today we would go to You Tube; in 1924, there was no television.
Instead, families and friends gathered around their radios and, yes, because we
intuitively look toward the source of someone speaking, they actually watched
the radio when important news came on. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By the late
1940s Betty became one of the earliest brand icons on television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women after World War II had married in
unprecedented numbers. With their husbands’ benefits from GI Bill, they could
move into their own homes at an age unheard of before the war. Radio and later television,
replaced their mothers as a resource for advice on how to manage the home and
particularly the kitchen. What was called “Home Economics” (cooking, budgeting,
and sewing your own clothes, among other skills) was still being taught in high
schools well into the late 1960s. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Betty Crocker
was already a star presence from her radio days. According to Fortune magazine,
by 1945 she was the best-loved female figure after First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt. A considerable accomplishment for someone who didn’t really exist. She
filled a gap in the homemaking pantheon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Preparing dishes using packaged mixes was still not the norm (compared
to cooking from scratch) and Betty was the link, informing the nation of the
DIY aspects of processed and packaged recipes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For young mothers
operating on their own often very distant from their origin families, she was
the trusted home-wise senior female always ready with moral support as well as
mastery of how modern cooking operated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This was especially vital during World War II, when rationing dominated
the Homefront and ingredients were limited, lower-quality, or nonexistent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">General Mills
produced a guidebook in 1945 called <i>Our Nation’s Rations</i> to help
customers cope. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a wisdom figure on a
par with Walter Cronkite (“The most trusted man in America”), Dale Carnegie, or
Eleanor Roosevelt, she emerged from the ranks of American wisdom heroes
(embodied first by Benjamin Franklin).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are practical problem-solvers with grace and integrity whose positive
outlook is won through experience and shared with a broad public.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> from 1950 is a perennial
best-seller over seventy years later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The
Homemaker’s Creed,” about the pride and talents of making the ideal home for
the family, came out during wartime in 1944—just as women were being encouraged
to return to the kitchen from the wartime factories where so many had been
working. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Creed pledge [of the Home
Legion], suitable for signing, begins with “I believe homemaking is a noble and
challenging career….an art requiring many different skills and the best of my
efforts, my abilities, and my thinking.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was co-signed by Betty Crocker as the icon of American
homemaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since her
invention in 1921, she’s been gradually replaced by the secondary icon, the red
cooking spoon, not a human icon with which anyone can identify.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brand icons have two basic roles: they can
either represent the product, or the product user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the decades, after the 1960s, Betty’s
image was steadily adapted to look younger and more cosmopolitan, as if she
represented the consumer rather than the virtues of the product line
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The value proposition
represented by Betty was rather the young grandmother with authority in the
kitchen who knows what her customers want and the techniques to get them
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She embodied authority and how-to
inherent in the product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A catch-phrase
for her talents was “You can do it, and Betty can help you.” General Mills
confused the two roles of the icon, meaning the Crocker image became less and
less relevant for consumers when they saw a younger, less authoritative
version. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Was Betty
Crocker a real person?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Not just one
person, but a composite of several females originally drawn from the ranks of
Gold Medal Home Service personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
the 80s revision, 75 separate photos were aggregated in a single image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seven portraits from the 30s to the 90s
all show closely ranging features and coloring, looking like female relatives
(much as Disney animated princesses could be cousins).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way, the Crocker image was an early
version of hyperreality applied to portraiture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But that image is responded to as a living person: an adaptable,
far-sighted, consistent, in-control figure inspiring trust and confidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Crocker
image has had amazing cultural value – among the top 20 most recognizable
images in the world (topped by the leading corporate symbol of Mickey Mouse).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through seven transformations, from 1936 to
1996, she maintained her recognizable middle-American “ageless 32” image—in
fact, she looks progressively younger in each, and by the mid-90s, has acquired
a pan-ethnic olive complexion. In our research on the Crocker image, we found
one consumer commenting that “the final image is no longer Betty Crocker, but
Betty Rodriguez married to a Crocker.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">General Mills
did not understand or appreciate that their customers did not want to BE Betty Crocker.
They wanted Betty Crocker working for them in the kitchen. They were not
identifying with the icon, but with the competence she represented – her skill
as a baker who could turn out a perfect result every time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This was the
value center. It is an important distinction in marketing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Companies are always looking for ways to
update their images—however, dropping the persona of Betty wasn’t the way to do
this (just as New Coke discovered in beverages). Companies often tire of their
own images because they see them every day. They get inured to them, thinking
them too old-fashioned and time-worn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, that is often their true value—think of the preppy themeing of
Abercrombie and Fitch or Ralph Lauren.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These fashion lines show lasting profitability for their references to
classic design, time-tested as trustworthy. In music, the late Tony Bennett
trusted his faith in the classic American songbook that made him a lead
performer well into his 80s. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">After a century
in media, Betty Crocker had become a fully vested American symbol of family,
hearth, and home that many generations still treasure and look up to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her image is solidly emblematic of the
middle-class, productivity, and women as homemakers. These are values steadily central
to middle-class aspiration. To the company, Betty’s image began to recede as a
symbol invested with the World War II generation, one that has now almost
totally passed away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not its influence,
however. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #262a33; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But Betty
represented a stable and reliable universe, one on which you could depend.
Consumers could rely on media figures not to make rash or selfish decisions, to
hold the right values, to be principled and rational, and to speak with the
voice of reason and moral authority around home and family. Most of all, despite
her image updates, she presented constancy; you knew what you were going to get
every time. Betty would never let you down. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We still need such icons in our lives—now more
than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 1.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Photo: Pixabay</span></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-54418880360474939072023-07-21T13:54:00.003-07:002023-07-21T15:20:23.574-07:00Your Brain Is Not a Computer: Hard v. Soft Technology<p> <span> </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span> <span> </span><span> <span> <span> </span><span> </span></span></span></span>“Your brain does not process
information, retrieve knowledge, </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span></span>or store memories. In short, your brain in not a computer.” </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: right;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: right;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: right;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>- “Your Brain Is Not a Computer,”</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: right;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Robert
Epstein, </span><i style="text-align: right;">Aeon</i><span style="text-align: right;">, May 16, 2016</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">“We suggest that the question
for scientists should instead be: if we adopt the definition from computer
science, then what kind of a computer are brains? For those using the
definition from outside of computer science, they can be assured that their
brains work in a very different way than their laptops and their smartphones—an
important point to clarify as we seek to better understand how brains work.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– “The Brain-Computer Metaphor Debate Is
Useless,” Richards and Lillicrap, <i>Frontier</i>, Feb.8, 2022 </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH05XAG_rYzCxJFL4tQJIJbe2L0Gnzx0BlAZFNYMDaC0Y2ksbB1oG1iGldzb99uqdT1WHR66LKW5y1yiAeJaHg-rzoYxqnMxDGp9kswAb1KLH-GishxuPVQax_270Syp1vMFVR-FY1l_n6vgjxi48m9Iuh4zdSlquV4HjESrT82AQpcUb27DGAlh2AWL4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="1052" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH05XAG_rYzCxJFL4tQJIJbe2L0Gnzx0BlAZFNYMDaC0Y2ksbB1oG1iGldzb99uqdT1WHR66LKW5y1yiAeJaHg-rzoYxqnMxDGp9kswAb1KLH-GishxuPVQax_270Syp1vMFVR-FY1l_n6vgjxi48m9Iuh4zdSlquV4HjESrT82AQpcUb27DGAlh2AWL4=w462-h199" width="462" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Stage 1 - Image
from </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Aeon</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Without looking in your wallet, try this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Draw the portrait side (the “obverse”) of a
$1.00 bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did you do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it look like a child drew it? (Stage 1)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many times have you looked at this exact
same object?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly thousands and
thousands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then why isn’t it stored
somewhere in the brain, ready to leap onto the page?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Robert Epstein took on this question and its
implications in 2016 in an article called “Your Brain is Not a Computer” in <i>Aeon</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although the metaphor is alive and active, the information
processing theory of the brain (active since the 1940s) is not only misleading,
because our brains are not uploaded, downloaded, or a cluster of coded
programs, but prevents seeing our unique capabilities, which aren’t even
parallel to those of computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each
human brain is uniquely shaped by its own experiences (not “inputs’) and in
fact gets “rewritten” in different ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We each learn differently, creating new knowledge from our unique
abilities to live and learn from those experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We change and create constantly because we
aren’t coded to one system for handling information—though we are biased
socially in the direction of the culture we inhabit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reason our brains can’t be
downloaded to a computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brains don’t
store words, images, or symbols—we don’t retrieve or download memories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could be called the “One percent reality
problem” – we live in our heads, not in anything like an objective reality
sphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Memory is one reason we operate day to day on incomplete
information. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our perception is sketchy,
our memories are full of holes, and our general knowledge studded with gaps. In
trying to recall and draw a dollar bill you will get a crude drawing with main
features only.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Juries have this problem with evidence, as well as employers
looking for recruits, marketing looking for purchasing motives, by drawing
conclusions from limited cues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
what culture does: it helps us think and decide on the basis of very limited
information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Name bias—attempting to
size up people by last / first name, is one example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In his book <i>Things that Make Us Smart</i> (1993) Don
Norman says, “We are excellent perceptual creatures who see a pattern and
immediately understand it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
common phrase used in psychology to describe this state is ‘going beyond the information
given.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A simple fragment of information
and we immediately recognize the whole…Sometimes we can identify a friend or
relative from a cough or footstep.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sampling yields errors for infrequent events and/or people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The brain processes images against a
stereotype list – a shortcut to pick out a person, object, place, or symbol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looks over this patterns list to match up
the perceived pattern with something already familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way, acts of perception are always
acts of plumbing the past to resolve unknowns in the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as a whole class of studies has shown, this
list is scattered, imprecise, and set up to be misleading. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, through the magic of adapting ideas to their
current use, it works for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know to
look at a real dollar bill to resolve our mental picture of it to clarify
relationships and correct errors. (Stage II)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKzkx1rfk9C20S-pyCuJaoIZ9_Cp4QRXNQdYKU1UcTx9fgZ4jxgSzVIrB2C3fEyfXiacDuxgMZvRFczOTLF0H8EkFd2VI67HNneSl_DVdChYo7WccAZmDuO4qWQQwBKa1P67vPV7QEsLoH0r4XvpfGhgqaLPdA69YYd-CmEvU5QfWvw3pgON0_Abnu-lE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="975" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKzkx1rfk9C20S-pyCuJaoIZ9_Cp4QRXNQdYKU1UcTx9fgZ4jxgSzVIrB2C3fEyfXiacDuxgMZvRFczOTLF0H8EkFd2VI67HNneSl_DVdChYo7WccAZmDuO4qWQQwBKa1P67vPV7QEsLoH0r4XvpfGhgqaLPdA69YYd-CmEvU5QfWvw3pgON0_Abnu-lE" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Stage II - Artist’s rendition of
the $1 bill</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Intelligence</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In making hundreds of thousands of connections, human intelligence
lies not in the number of neurons in the brain but in the connective system
between brain cells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This connectivity
of ideas and images is the basis of adaptive intelligence and creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But from a computing standpoint, this system
is far from stable, and is prone to the fluidity of memory and subject to so
many “errors” that it could never be considered an accurate system of fixed
facts and figures.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Memory<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Cognition is anything but a precise system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We live in our heads, not only in our imaginations,
but in the imaginative reconstructions of reality that occurs every time we
remember and reconstruct the reality we live in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We process the raw materials of memory and
what is around us (perception) to create a meta-reality, our version of
reality, which corresponds roughly to the reality as it exists and as it exists
for other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why culture
exists as the web of ideas (illusions) that bonds us to the brains of
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Culture is the shared idea of
reality that we can reference and rely on—and reshape to any number of
uses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the way we develop our
capacity to interact with the world effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t retrieve memories – we refashion
them to our current needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hard v. Soft technology: Logic v. Language <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Technological systems can be classified into two
categories:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hard and soft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hard tech refers to those systems that put
technology first, with inflexible rigid requirements for the human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soft tech refers to compliant, yielding
systems that “informate,” providing a richer set of information and options
than would otherwise be available, and most important of all, acknowledge the
initiative and flexibility of the person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Norman continues by noting that the language of logic does
not follow the logic of language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Logic
is a machine-controlled system in which every term has a precise
interpretation, every operation is well-defined (rigor, consistency, no
contradictions, no ambiguities).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Logic
is very intolerant of error. A single error in statement or operation can
render the results uninterpretable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
the other hand, language is always open to interpretation and fine-tuning,
which is the essence of dialogue and its logic of directed correction and
clarification.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Language is indeed quite different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language is a human-centered system that has
taken tens of thousands of years to evolve to its current form, which exhibits
in the multitude of specific languages across the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language has to serve human needs, which
means it must allow for ambiguity and imprecision when they are beneficial, be
robust in the face of noise and difficulties, and somehow bridge the tradeoff
bet ease of use. and precision and accuracy (longer and more specific).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At its base, any language has to be learnable
by young children without formal instruction, be malleable, continually able to
change and adapt itself to new situations, as well as very tolerant of error.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Like language, then, pattern-making usually works well
enough so that we think of it as reliable. As larger-than-life patterns,
stereotypes have earned the bad reputation of occasionally being wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But against that liability is the evidence
that they are usually reliable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this
were not the case, they wouldn’t proliferate or have any reputation at all to
worry about<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Archetype” is a better way of thinking about our thinking –
ideal prototypes (from the Greek “original pattern”) that represent whole
categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Types are the basic currency
in which our minds deal, and the cast of myths and storytelling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially central in thinking about people,
as in Jung’s 12 universals, they are balanced by the persona or self at the
center—Latin for “mask.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Understanding
the world effectively has a strong link to drama and themeing—very far from the
stage of computing.<o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-66857455078929630542023-06-14T14:01:00.000-07:002023-06-14T14:01:32.260-07:00Exogamy and Diversity<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiplGWcghZaA0puxIs21r1ouveEYCY6RH9k_i2xkuLL7DI4s7jxEtN3CJJz3NO8C0ADPE-zljzla4NtLymjIj_0g1W1oEiQfGhDjPBkPuPdH7gQc8LgUO49t7xiXXT29Zzpoxo0E3uzIELcSq73CKEGVUHJp9rx920dvoo4uCYmv1SfocgWBxUz1sJj/s1950/lage%20group%20various%20ethnicities.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="1950" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiplGWcghZaA0puxIs21r1ouveEYCY6RH9k_i2xkuLL7DI4s7jxEtN3CJJz3NO8C0ADPE-zljzla4NtLymjIj_0g1W1oEiQfGhDjPBkPuPdH7gQc8LgUO49t7xiXXT29Zzpoxo0E3uzIELcSq73CKEGVUHJp9rx920dvoo4uCYmv1SfocgWBxUz1sJj/w457-h268/lage%20group%20various%20ethnicities.jpg" width="457" /></a></div><div> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span style="font-size: small;">*Image from Pixabay</span></div><div><br /></div>Humans live in small groups dictated by Dunbar’s number, the limit of active relationships that can be managed as a mental system. That number is limited to around 150 people. However, we need to go outside our close genetic lineage for marriage partners in order to opt for genetic diversity, a seeming contradiction to our close social bonds cultivated by territorial bias. Exogamy is the fusion of reproductive cells from distantly and unrelated individuals, or outbreeding. But it comes with a host of advantages beyond the genetic.<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Humans are wild breeders, meaning that there is no set
pattern to our marriage / reproductive choices – except that of excluding close
relatives. This means that we must
actively seek out and recruit different genetics for reproduction—including racial
and ethnic “others.” Thus the appeal of
the exotic man or woman – like Harry’s choice of a mixed-marriage product to import within
the British Royals. Did this cause a
stir? Indeed it did. But the racial factor in Meghan’s makeup was
the least controversial aspect of the coupling.
This was far more a matter of class. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">North American Inuit tribes live in paired kinship groups
called moiety, two relatively even groups that marry each other, under assigned
totem names. This keeps lineages
separated until they pair off. Intermarriage long ago became an excellent way
to produce in-laws from warring groups to keep the peace, with continuing exogamy
as a primary tool for maintaining alliances between diverse groups.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Beyond
the social and political bonds, the gene pool is greatly enriched by
intermarriage, meaning more combinations leading to genetic innovation. In addition, “once the members of human
groups began to marry outsiders, and thus to spread beyond their
own relatively narrow limits, the knowledge of one group became potentially the
knowledge of all, and the possibility of human progress was vastly increased” (Life
Nature Library, <i>The Primates</i>). Diversity
is a source of enrichment and biological progress, the banner of DEI programs
so much a part of corporate awareness following George Floyd’s May 2020 death. His long criminal past--including serial rape--makes him a problematic champion as well.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Americans have long been multiracial, considering that race
is an informal concept without any scientific validity or formal
definition. Ask an American about their ancestry, and they will instantly
cite the most divergent one, not the boring mainstream example. The cattle rustler or bandito, immigrant or eccentric,
not the shopkeeper or accountant. American
culture favors the bottom caste, especially as a point of origin for later
success. There are no purebreds here,
because we don’t depend on bloodlines to establish anything important, like
citizen status, voting rights, property holding, or clan membership.
The head of state was famously one such person—Barack Obama. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Since the late 1960s, with the SCOTUS decision in Loving vs.
Virginia--under Equal Protection and Due Process--all marriages between races have
been legal, setting the precedent for legal same-sex marriage as well. Since
1967 there has been a steady increase in out-marriage between ethnic groups,
from 3% in 1967 to 19% of all newlyweds now marrying someone of a different
ethnicity. The average across all
married people is 10%, or about 11 million (PEW study, 2017), a five-time
increase since 1967. In California in
particular (as a style leader for the nation), white-plus families abound, and
it’s almost unnecessary to state “My son is married to a Japanese,” or Chinese,
or Latino, Jew, Indian, Iranian, etc. My own California family is heavily
outmarried—60% between five siblings, up to 80% if you let in the Irish. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Still, whites are least likely to inter-marry, Asians and
Hispanics most likely. 30% of Asians are
outmarried, and nearly as many Hispanics (who are, in fact, in the White
classification). This carries us beyond
the European pale, where Italian used to be considered a sub-white group (along
with Jews and Irish). The rate of
outmarriage reliably rises alongside college education, in keeping with
middle-class values prevailing over racial stigma. Striving middle-classers tend to make race
far less important than personal achievement.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When your in-laws are members of another group, your feelings
about that group improve instantly. And by the time these half-other children
begin to have their own children with other half-others, it almost becomes
irrelevant to try to name 4 to 8 other groups to cover their offspring's heritage. As the US becomes more middle-class intermarriage will become more the
norm and less exceptional. Middle-class mixed unions ignore race because it’s
the class orientation that becomes the common bond. For the middle class, race just mostly goes
away. Fifty-five years after Loving,
public approval of interracial unions rose from 5% in the 1950s to
95%--virtually universal—in 2021 (Gallup). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtwWqsE5J7UdOv2OXDwpZkS7ph1OBNLOUbx2U7mGvOJXj_gXSqqSjNzhhrQrmJW1DP_RWB2cr3n-1hUedbC5Kx8DH79lO3n7PYn23bKs9YFhytu53paMe_Bn58784QlDs89RRwbI2z6OFfsFeVF0EFhcgr1cbXkOfvW7hwnd2glXjWjynvH5bak6Rz" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="975" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtwWqsE5J7UdOv2OXDwpZkS7ph1OBNLOUbx2U7mGvOJXj_gXSqqSjNzhhrQrmJW1DP_RWB2cr3n-1hUedbC5Kx8DH79lO3n7PYn23bKs9YFhytu53paMe_Bn58784QlDs89RRwbI2z6OFfsFeVF0EFhcgr1cbXkOfvW7hwnd2glXjWjynvH5bak6Rz" width="320" /></a></div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><div><br /><div><div><p></p></div></div></div>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-49025411653273948882023-05-25T15:35:00.000-07:002023-05-25T15:35:41.349-07:00The Cost of Excellence <p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="color: #181818; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> “Excellence is never
an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and
intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives -
choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” </span><span style="color: #181818; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 106%;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 106%;">― </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 106%;">Aristotle</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The
best is the mortal enemy of the good. -- Montesquieu<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwn-IsjX5Walc3nDvPTlDa_ERXq3hRIrS2M6j-e3xgnR13MoH-vLwnX__fkXory2IKQBXbhn57QnIOE--547Fjso5YVXTr2VsjXoGvCuDpbyjDqcYfqUPBX17hJ7BmK0UTwEyMsAjDYG6JIBtynvhTiw0NjJMtVlPj7pJd3WCBIXkGG_FZ7sEu9i1T" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="975" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwn-IsjX5Walc3nDvPTlDa_ERXq3hRIrS2M6j-e3xgnR13MoH-vLwnX__fkXory2IKQBXbhn57QnIOE--547Fjso5YVXTr2VsjXoGvCuDpbyjDqcYfqUPBX17hJ7BmK0UTwEyMsAjDYG6JIBtynvhTiw0NjJMtVlPj7pJd3WCBIXkGG_FZ7sEu9i1T=w640-h341" width="640" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Photo: Pixabay</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Bias Part III<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the relentless pursuit of quality standards, and
competing to express them, we automatically show our bias against anything but
best-in-class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we pursue the top
nominee for “Best cat breeds for catching mice,” then we must discriminate
against less talented mousers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
look only at top colleges, we ignore all other options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also daydream about absolute top quality
in marriage partners, homes, career, and car – the top big-ticket decisions in
a lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be rare for anyone
to achieve top quality results in all these categories, which is what even the very
successful can’t manage to pull off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While working or waiting for ideal opportunities, there are
many more decisions that are fated to yield less-than-stellar outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rarely do all big-ticket criteria align for
the perfect world we hold in our heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Aristotle championed the excellent while also promoting the Golden Mean
as the avenue to avoid the extremes of the excellent and the abysmal.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In practice, though, of course, people can’t perform at their
best or fit the top ten criteria for everything, from driving to cooking, singing,
organizing, playing bridge, managing their portfolio, or giving
presentations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do below-best most of
the time, and that has consequences across the board for quality of life and
reputation. “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True, but we don’t always choose to pay for that
option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The costs of operating at that
level are too high.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or we must
concentrate on one area of life at the expense of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cognitive strain exacted by excellence
means we only apply high effort selectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On his site FergusonValues.com, Robert Ferguson notes that for the
Forbes 500, Excellence is the third most popular core value—after Integrity and
Respect. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Social scientist Herbert Simon articulated the cognitive
limits to effort and focus in studying complex problems with high demands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When things get too complex or hard to
evaluate, we default to “satisficing,” making efforts good enough for the
situation and its goals to get the job done, even if the outcomes are not top-ranking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satisficing sees that the job is taken care
of but doesn’t impose a mandate for excellence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This measure departs from the classical Rational Man theory of economics
that assumes people know what they want and the logical price they are willing
to pay for it for any given choice—like college. Too often we are dealing with
incomplete information, with limited resources and energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In everyday situations, entropy rules over
excellence. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In engineering and economics, this situation is called
“theory of second-best.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No system
operates in all its parts and dynamics at top efficiency all the time, and any
aspect that isn’t fully operational impacts the effect of every other aspect of
the system, as in welfare economics entitlements. There are too many errors to
make, and few ways to be top-notch, compared to hundreds or thousands of
chances to be less than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A basic
human brain problem is that there are two brains: we make decisions and take
action both on the rational and the non-rational sides—the reason cognitive
economics began to study both, venturing beyond the Rational Man theory.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Diversity programs in all sectors of society are
dedicated to breaking down the hierarchy of success by insisting on making the
successful better represent subset groups within the culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To diffuse class envy and inequality, Santa
Monica High School in California has closed down its honors program in English
in a radical move against excellence based on merit achievement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As amazing as this sounds as a solution
within an academic institution devoted to developing minds to their fullest
extent: it is a logical step under the assumption that the top ranks of
students express privilege based on unequal advantages such as educated parents
in homes full of books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SAMO’s home page
declares its mission as “Extraordinary achievement for all students while
simultaneously closing the achievement gap.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This noble confusion might be rephrased as “Get great, but not too great
to be unequal.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On another front, Congress is debating a “Worst Passengers”
list, a nationwide no-fly blacklist to bar unruly fliers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But in a perfect world, who else would be
prevented from flying?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chatty or
entitled passengers? Babies?“ (Elliott Advocacy).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The no-fly list is of cultural interest,
because it reflects our collective ideas of profiling bad actors. The
nature of close quarters at high altitudes makes this profiling critical as
compared to issues on the ground. One would think that suspected
terrorists would come first, followed by anger-management failures, then on to
the unruly. Alcoholics, drug addicts, spastics, mental patients, maybe
even the anxious and depressed could follow. Babies and their behavior
included. Comfort animals other than dogs. And yes,
hygiene-compromised passengers as well. This could become a long and
inclusive list. Any condition that promotes “disruptive” behavior would
be eligible, and that, when you think about it, is a widely distributed trait:
anyone who fails to fit “normal” parameters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Exactly like high achievers, just at the other end of the scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Excellence and the competition for virtuosity is the root
cause of inequality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any effort to separate
people based on merited achievement creates an obvious rift: the top 1% versus
everyone else, as in the extreme wealth curve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sifting for criteria, either competence or character-based, is a
discriminatory act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This happens
constantly at all levels of behavior, within our own actions and in the way we
think about and judge others and their origin groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How are we to reconcile Excellence with
Equity?<o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-5524768398380705132023-05-15T12:09:00.002-07:002023-05-21T10:55:24.838-07:00Ranking: Perils and potentials <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“Without changing our
patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems that we created
with our current patterns of thought.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>--Albert Einstein<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Bias Part II <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(254, 254, 254); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #373d41; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none; text-transform: uppercase;">THE JASTROW ILLUSION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(254, 254, 254); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #373d41; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none; text-transform: uppercase;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLTN6LB41AdvmPx9JuDIKf7gu-4jz-8OH7d6mDuDE-wGTVmH5R-T6zZOCnhWCXB5XC6Wdr_ewpZdvZ7clv0r8UegP-YbKWttQGfqu978bWBXvLUl0NKHcYIAfRgg4tjK_yaZFW2iqTi-WyfldddQqcGDBjhJzW7MqJzIRUbh_jUnkO3WktdsgEeY5B" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="938" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLTN6LB41AdvmPx9JuDIKf7gu-4jz-8OH7d6mDuDE-wGTVmH5R-T6zZOCnhWCXB5XC6Wdr_ewpZdvZ7clv0r8UegP-YbKWttQGfqu978bWBXvLUl0NKHcYIAfRgg4tjK_yaZFW2iqTi-WyfldddQqcGDBjhJzW7MqJzIRUbh_jUnkO3WktdsgEeY5B" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Compare these two stacked curves.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Which is longer?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(254, 254, 254); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">This is a classic optical illusion, from the nineteenth century. In fact, the two are actually identical. The illusion vanishes with a change in perspective to upright/vertical. The human brain is automatically comparing everything it sees.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(254, 254, 254); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Ranking is a human proclivity, and it
is all around us.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">SEO (search engine
optimization) ratings, US News Best Colleges, The Olympics, pro sports and
amateur sports, Amazon product reviews, happiness rankings of countries
worldwide, employee job applications, political candidates’ approval ratings,
reputation polls. In fact, it is impossible for anyone to examine two objects
within the same category without ranking them in some way on some feature.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">These can include reputation, performance, brand,
cost, design, range of uses, aesthetics, color, size, speed, efficiency, and
dozens of other basic aspects.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Think
about the time and energy we all expend in comparing ourselves to others.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">We compare along these lines and beyond –
without having any way of confirming these ratings except a general anxiety
about the need to do so. Our social media scores are a simple example.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><b>Dominance</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Top Ten lists are everywhere and cover
everything imaginable, including longest reigning monarchs, youngest state
leaders, no-hitter record pitchers, highest jumpers, most innovative countries,
winning tips for college-level essays, video game characters, famous
astronauts, hang-gliding champions, chess minds, Noble Peace Prize winners, teams
with the largest stadiums, quickest female Paralympians, and, of course, Best
Top Ten lists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The recent obituary of
singer Harry Belafonte ranks him as the first Black Emmy and Tony Award winner
as well as the first of any race to sell one million albums (“Calypso,” in
1956). (<i>The Week</i>, May 12 2023)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmCMmbCTWQfESKlQ3NhIOtVR9i9a6hCPovIoqDTMVd7nlr1VryWVJnDSxbeA7DiDRCw7HPdKGpOf_WBIRmTN7QbXZGt4a1UxpjqqCjXnlNEkHzQqHdUVORJiBLWvNDVB5E4E_kBYu3BOQduddSXkotsPkafWgdN8yr_faHePgi37OOXT_hdbjrkiud" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="664" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmCMmbCTWQfESKlQ3NhIOtVR9i9a6hCPovIoqDTMVd7nlr1VryWVJnDSxbeA7DiDRCw7HPdKGpOf_WBIRmTN7QbXZGt4a1UxpjqqCjXnlNEkHzQqHdUVORJiBLWvNDVB5E4E_kBYu3BOQduddSXkotsPkafWgdN8yr_faHePgi37OOXT_hdbjrkiud=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Our hourly ruminations consist of
searching for clues to our standing compared to others.</span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Talent, wealth, perception, power, influence,
trustworthiness, and romantic interest are all rankings we seek to compete and excel
in.</span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">These are dominance hierarchies in
every society, and they serve a purpose.</span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">As systems expert Peter Erdi puts it in his book </span><i style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">Ranking</i><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">, “Dominance
hierarchies are very efficient structures at very different levels of
evolution.</span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;">They have a major role in
reducing conflict and maintaining social stability…to regulate access to these
resources [food and mates].” </span><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Dominance ranking is a great mechanism
to maintain the status quo, so that people (and animals in general) have a good
idea of where they stand, and where they would like to stand in the future. Dominance goes beyond power, leadership, and
authority to include influence, expertise, competence (toward virtuosity), and
trustworthiness (a brand of social equity).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think of writers, athletes, musicians, artists, and inventors and their role
as models of prestige.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><b>Emergent properties</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Ranking and valuing have their
value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what are the emergent
properties, the unanticipated outcomes, of ranking competitions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> There are costs. </span>They begin with the constant need to measure
and judge, ending often enough in an ongoing critical evaluation of self as never good
enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Constant comparison is the
essential activity of social media worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #636363; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The Zoom screen affords the
opportunity-as-compulsion to see oneself alongside others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The self-criticism and appraisal of our
appearance up against others in the screen meeting is one reason that remote
meetings are as stressful as they are, regardless of the business at hand. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while we are comparing ourselves to others
on dozens of scales, they are doing the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No one entirely knows what their score is, but act as if they do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>B</span><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">illionaire investor Charlie Munger (Warren Buffet’s business partner)
declared “</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The world is not driven by greed.
It's driven by envy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The obsession with determining
the best of everything is a form of “virtue bias,” the directive we all share
to seek out a way that lets us agree on rankings for everything from colleges
to cars to cappuccinos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we curate
“best of” lists for everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever
their standards, and whether those standards are based on tangible and provable
truths, these lists take on a life of their own, reinforcing themselves in a
self-fulfilling prophecy as the most-cited attract to become the most-desired and
best-selling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The cost of
competition is then passed along to those underneath the top ranks—the second
place to mediocre to loser class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which,
because so few of us are winners (on one scale, let alone several), means that we
all tarred by the bias against “second-best,” or as a colleague once phrased it,
“First Loser.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not a great-sounding
placement, considering all the effort put out to make something of our lives
and our reputations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just a reminder
that talent is not equally distributed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neither is the work ethic necessary to maximize that talent. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why equality is such a tricky concept
to pin down and engineer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The social contest is not a
level playing field, and some of that levelling is under our own control, while
the start-points—family, location, culture, ethnicity, wealth, class—are more steeply
slanted as well as harder to equalize later in life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These contests, in operation in
all domains of life, are one way to find information useful in making choices
and investments of our time, money, and attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> To this end,</span> we seek out the best possible in
schools--including preschools--</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;">for our children, politicians who will represent
our interests, cars we can rely on to confer status as well as deliver performance, books that will reward the time investment in reading them.</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;">We seek out friends who will enhance our
efforts by reinforcing our values, making them worth the precious time invested
in socializing.</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;"> We hope for c</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;">ollege roommates whose
good character and work habits will encourage our own school success (as
important, some studies show, as the quality of the school attended). </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;">President-to-be Franklin Pierce had such a
roommate at Bowdoin College, one who fired up his ambition and work habits. Homes
in the most advantaged parts of town we can afford in order to enjoy quality
neighbors.</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;">Colleagues to match our
interests and our goals and lifestyles. Marriage partner, ditto.</span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt;">Such preferences are quality-control devices,
deployed as systematic bias protection against making poor judgments by our
social group.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ratings are supposed to help us distinguish
between good and less effective use of our resources: time, wealth, energy,
reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life is largely an
efficiency game, one we seek to win at as often as possible, by aiming to win each
time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>Outcomes and correctives</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When recorded music became
available by record and radio, everything else started to sound amateurish, or homegrown,
or less-than-professional (John Phillip Souza, consummate composer in many
genres, predicted this effect of technology).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The music on the ground, as it migrated onstage, created its own
recording traditions that nationalized the genre (like folk, country, blues,
and jazz), leading to its own “best-of” listings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Belafonte’s signature “Banana Boat Song,”
“Day-O,” is a Jamaican work song out of the colonial island fields but massaged
by studio technologies, headed the charts in 1956.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Songwriters led by “the father of American
music,” Stephen Foster, could be rewarded for their talents thanks to copyright
and printing advances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the workplace, to compensate
for the seller’s market in computer talent, companies are starting to adopt
“skills-based hiring” to get around degree-based ranking of job applicants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> A</span>pplied
computer skill doesn’t require the traditional four-year degree or professional
title, and can be conducted on-line and on the associate level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> D</span>istinction between certification and
performance is the focus, opting for evidence-based performance over degree awards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the same mentality, merit-based admissions
values achievement over race-based pro-bias in college admissions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Affirmative action continues to be an ongoing
debate that pits achievement against adjustment in the cause of balance and
fairness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To erase any competition for
recognition, Santa Monica High School in California has done away with its Honors
program in English as an enabler of inequality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Not without concern over loss of opportunity for bright contestants who are now losers of this resume benefit.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="ydpf98c25c9yiv7135059363msonormal"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Even bat-flipping in</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
professional <span style="color: #040c28;">baseball, the practice of </span>tossing
the bat in the air <span style="color: #040c28;">to celebrate a home run, is a
point of debate. The practice was labelled as disrespectful of the
opposing team and the game itself. More recently flipping </span>the bat
is being viewed increasingly <span style="color: #040c28;">as simply a
celebratory exhilaration and not an insult – realigning expectations and
allowing for a more expressive game. Even the slightest ritual carries
with it a bias-based value.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">All bias depends on expectations
and context as a culturally constructed virtue or vice. From the birth of human society, nonetheless, physical height is still positively correlated with leadership potential and dominance
in pecking orders. Erdi notes that “the
desire to achieve a higher social rank appears to be a universal, a driving
force for all human beings.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-28283459472926436072023-04-15T14:10:00.001-07:002023-04-15T14:11:17.057-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Bias, Pro
and Anti</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo8ICDvF0LdPnyyoUlFdQ80O3fScEkXqAqDA9-gUeOmzMq5_EF4oxDje18bb2_uOa1bY4QRJM1dbXq5xWfYDPKTs3uvKFk-e1x9cziL10PYyVaXeyhmenffV4tGhOFgxSCVw0Usg4WYeEH7FVjqc277hPEUliFtkpxpZf20TTy5PPp3hWBIEOwqQLj/s220/Gateway%20Arch%20SL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="220" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo8ICDvF0LdPnyyoUlFdQ80O3fScEkXqAqDA9-gUeOmzMq5_EF4oxDje18bb2_uOa1bY4QRJM1dbXq5xWfYDPKTs3uvKFk-e1x9cziL10PYyVaXeyhmenffV4tGhOFgxSCVw0Usg4WYeEH7FVjqc277hPEUliFtkpxpZf20TTy5PPp3hWBIEOwqQLj/w400-h267/Gateway%20Arch%20SL.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">“[Mr.
Palmer’s] temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others
of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was
the husband of a very silly woman.” – Jane Austen, </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">Sense and Sensibility</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">
(1811) </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">P</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">art </span><b style="font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">I </b></div></div></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Expected distortions</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Look at the above image, the St.
Louis Gateway Arch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Gateway is the
world’s tallest arch, at 630 feet from ground to apex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is equally wide, also at 630 feet,
from base to base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, what we see
with our own eyes is its height, not width. This is because the brain is
preconditioned to this bias, shaped by factors lying below conscious awareness.
These factors systematically bias how and what we think we understand about anything
we are looking at. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Including how tall it
is.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The arch appears much taller
than it is wide because the human brain is systematically biased toward the
vertical, seeing lines going upward as longer than horizontals. This bias rules
our common-sense perception all the time across many estimating situations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This ibias is inbuilt, the kind we should
know about from perception studies in order to recalibrate the judgments we
make about things in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Determining
how things actually are, as well as how they are most likely to end up over
time, is also swayed by our human tendency to be wishful rather than wise
(James Reason, <i>Human Error</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
must apply conscious attention and evaluation to understand and correct for our
natural misperceptions as they distort the real state of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In the same way, culture
determines how we view our moral and social world by determining a long-living
set of values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider another
well-known optical illusion: The Shepard tables (source: Wikipedia).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1xxRDibwEuy7t1IxMvDnpqBDPUsMAB3dC-hp3It2OtpzUobfcRgSMY3jHFzskw2B6LXh5zNVQzJ5BpHVHBELxMxi2_2uwhTpC7-VjXEh6QmB2BingXYclo5Q60wt8n9JkFPdEGDkBCtDjTKzPqtQBNKrUJVl2cvu5TGwyHhg8pfiqa_0WVOGdAWf4/s630/Table_shepard.preview%20(1).jpg" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="630" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1xxRDibwEuy7t1IxMvDnpqBDPUsMAB3dC-hp3It2OtpzUobfcRgSMY3jHFzskw2B6LXh5zNVQzJ5BpHVHBELxMxi2_2uwhTpC7-VjXEh6QmB2BingXYclo5Q60wt8n9JkFPdEGDkBCtDjTKzPqtQBNKrUJVl2cvu5TGwyHhg8pfiqa_0WVOGdAWf4/s320/Table_shepard.preview%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This predictable perceptual bias activates
“size-constancy expansion,” the illusory expansion of space with implied
distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In reality, these tables are
the same size, but our unconscious rules of thumb say otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to apply conscious reasoning to
understand and correct for our mental distortions—our naturally biased
thinking. It is one of several size and distance errors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Bias<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Beyond spatial illusions, we
think about bias as unfair judgment—aimed improperly or maliciously at people
or groups—that results in social injustice and discrimination, and therefore is
unjustified and abusive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">However, it is harder to claim
bias damage when the same negative disfavoring bias targets terrorists,
pedophiles, mass murderers, fraudsters, criminals, or Nazis (a group that has
well and truly been dehumanized).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can
anyone really be blamed for having negative bias against such bad actors?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or accusations of injustice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or cruelty and malfeasance toward animals?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about newly identified misuse of wild
animals, trees, or the environment in general? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The adopted meaning can be applied
to describe an attitude toward people, things, situations, and moral reasoning.
Systematic bias is an overall mental and emotional valence driving
decision-making and action, creating outcomes that shape our further decisions
and behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bias is seen as an
intolerant and pejorative assessment of others for their behavior and the
effects of that behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Background <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">However, cognitive science has
a more general and neutral meaning, with a direction either positive or
negative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Examples, starting with the
1970s, begin with Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman who first identified
heuristics, or rules of thumb (anchoring availability, and representativeness),
and the thinking biases that drives each one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Heuristics and biases” explain why human judgment is consistently less
than rational, Herbert Simon’s “bounded rationality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judgment, planning, and action stem from the
Automatic System (emotional) rather than the rational Reflective System
(rational), a dialectic <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>proposed by
Thaler and Sunstein in 2008.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Positive bias<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">So bias is simply a leaning in
one direction at the expense of another, a leaning that directs thinking and
action, designed to achieve a desired state and thereby avoiding an undesired
state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Therefore, a bias toward
waking early to get things done, and one against waiting until late in the day,
is an achievement technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pro
bias is a way to avoid procrastinating and leaving the work schedule too open
to interruptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pro bias implies
an aversion to situations that make working for goals more difficult and less
certain of success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This aversion bias,
the later one, is the natural correlative of the pro bias, the earlier preference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It mitigates against leaving tasks to later
in the day or evening hours when energy and willpower tend to lag (dinner and
wine being enemies of focused productivity).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The pro bias in the original impetus duels with the anti or aversion bias,
so both work in tandem and reciprocate the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The anti-bias has to be understood not alone
but in terms of its corollary pro version as a byproduct or outcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Choice Architecture is the way
our decision-making is framed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good
choices rely on reliable and solid truth assessment—yet our thinking is systematically
shaped, or biased, in certain directions that favor ideals or images of
ourselves (and less favorably toward others).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One example is the planning fallacy, familiar to all project managers,
which describes the bias leading to over-optimism about the time and money a
given project will require.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a
positive bias leading to costly overruns in schedule and budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even a small home improvement can involve
this fallacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drivers rate themselves as
above-average.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teachers and students
inflate their own performance and potential achievements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Newlyweds believe their marriage will defy
the divorce rate of around one out of two (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Entrepreneurs,
also, think they have a 90% success potential—whereas half fail within 5 years
(BLS). From the 1950s, psychologists began to acknowledge the futility of
assuming that consumers know exactly what they want and the price they should
pay to buy it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">These are illusions, wishful
thinking driven by positive bias that leads us to underestimate risk as we
overestimate chance and luck in forecasting rewards rather than financial and
competitive pitfalls. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Negative Bias<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Think of racism, Islamophobic
thinking, provincialism, ableism, class prejudice, religious bigotry, gender
politics, and ageism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These don’t
flourish in a vacuum, but are natural outcomes of our human tendency to favor
and select for ourselves and our home group—blood ties and extended family--over
other groups (“Charity begins at home,” one of my favorite aphorisms).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This emotional edict is at the heart of all
group cohesion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>G. K. Chesterton
reflected that “The true soldier fights not because he hates the soldier in
front of him, but that he loves the country behind him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">What we think of as the
negatively directed bias is the flip side of a positive approach or preference
for the ideal state of things – the “should” of a cultural outlook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This emotional valence is a type of preference
for the safety and familiarity of the hard-wired known social universe over
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This preference is an example of
the “bounded rationality” proposed by Herbert Simon – the cognitive limitations
imposed by context, the brain, experience, information access, and memory, as
well as invested with strong emotional biases based on big values. This concept
can explain why we don’t actively seek out the diverse or aberrant in our
search for family, friends, and colleagues, in the mandate of DEI diversity programs,
preferring the control of private spaces to public ones. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Our home-base preference,
rather than any active antipathy for others unlike ourselves, gives rise to
what looks like anti bias.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helps to
recall too how much time and attention are required for the maintenance of
simple socializing with family, coworkers, and friends, leaving little time and
attention for people unrelated to us by these roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we go on vacation trips in-country or
abroad, to see new sights, dine on new foods, and people-watch, our close
family circle travels with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And consider the ever-increasing pressures on
our scarce available time that make even family time ever more difficult to
find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>StudyFinds.org reports the average
family spends 37 minutes “quality time” together on weekdays, one of the
reasons families must break out of their routines for the time together on
vacation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Understanding these preferred
states helps profile our “bad” biases as the consequence of the “good” or
virtuous bias that makes us human—and as a shared thinking style, defines our
culture as the main influencer of daily choices we need to make about who gets
our care and attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This approach
redefines bias away from rational fallibility or moral failing to see it as the
outcome of our evolution as highly social creatures—creatures who are also
highly territorial around social as well as physical and mental space.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-2071533515595786552023-03-12T13:37:00.000-07:002023-03-12T13:37:04.685-07:00What Is Digital Literacy?<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijWe5HSfVbUwWzVCbkZoCFD8lo_LG7NA1RBDqGx4D9dU7IAoZT7XXIPNRqZ93y2cPvIACkbJqED1CSW9Vtx_Rnbv_hCOHlCJottkjmr2v9amgd4HZ1GcKHJcCYw8LFzLbBzEpZLFOwWZop4l-WPxG0nyI1_ek9ZhZxT4n8fB6Ef7dGJ5mv64JnoGsP" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="945" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijWe5HSfVbUwWzVCbkZoCFD8lo_LG7NA1RBDqGx4D9dU7IAoZT7XXIPNRqZ93y2cPvIACkbJqED1CSW9Vtx_Rnbv_hCOHlCJottkjmr2v9amgd4HZ1GcKHJcCYw8LFzLbBzEpZLFOwWZop4l-WPxG0nyI1_ek9ZhZxT4n8fB6Ef7dGJ5mv64JnoGsP=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Photo by Pixabay</span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><o:p> </o:p>“It’s not computer literacy that we
should be working on, but sort of human-literacy. Computers have to become
human-literate.” </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 93.0pt;">--Nicholas Negroponte<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 93.0pt; tab-stops: 281.25pt 313.5pt;"> Architect, MIT Media Lab founder<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">I can recall before the internet
era how submissions to journals used to work.
The author would submit by mail (or rarely, fax), the text was read and
evaluated, and you were either in, out, or in for a revision. Then there is the citation style – of which
there are several in academic writing: namely, APA, MLA, Chicago, and
others. Each has a hefty style guide,
and each can take years to truly learn for fluent use. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">But these matters were taken care
of in-house by the editorial staff, who were clear on what they wanted to see
for the final stages. Digital intelligence
is now allowing—make that demanding—that we feed information to programs
specialized in resumes, Social Security, tax filing, remote learning, mortgages,
and publishing. In publishing, authors
are seeing a major energy transfer to these programs. The digital effect is layering on an entire
new set of skills to the heavy labor of writing and to finally getting
manuscripts accepted. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Move up to the current practice,
which is to require the author to fill in a very detailed series of files and
boxes, shifting many editorial tasks back to the hopeful submitter. I sense that this means a work transfer, or
mission creep, over to the writer, who slowly but surely is taking on this
job. After all, the author needs the
publisher much more than vice-versa--which has always been the case. Except that now there is a way to draw the
work from author time and attention, away from the desks of whatever in-house
editors remain active. It’s a process
that expects me to become, without training, part of the editorial process, all
without benefit of any consultation with the in-house team. In effect, I am preparing my own material for
review, revising from the review results, then checking dozens of boxes to even
meet the digital standard for publication.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">For example, because of the
required formats on-screen, I had to stop the process many times to rewrite
several sections in order to comply with word counts, formatting, style manual,
file renaming, or other content, like the figure captions, calling for
revisions. One of these was the
abstract, the most difficult job on the list for any article, presentation, or
dissertation. While a previous instruction called for “a short abstract,” when the
time arrived to upload it, it was no longer my 250 words but a narrower 100.
This news called for a total rewrite, taking several hours. Encountering a list of similar changes in the
process consumed several more hours over more than three days. Quite a lot to ask for a “single-use” task. The style handbook compliance -- in this
case, Modern Language Association, MLA 9<sup>th</sup>
edition, a tome 367 pages long, is the documentation style – both within the
text and organized as notes at the end of the article. But MLA
is not my normal citation style, so add that learning curve (and time burn)
into the equation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">This kind of skill demand for
automation is also now why a CV must be completely dismantled and reassembled
for each customized job application, including course titles and dates, with
the exact dates (day and month as well as year) for certificates of graduation,
instructors, grades, locations, and other data that can date to many decades ago,
proving difficult and time-consuming to reconstruct or validate. Even the thought of reformulating a resume
dozens or hundreds of times must pose a major demotivator to job-hunting. This outsourcing of finding and entering
information is not optional but depends on the strong incentive to comply or
lose out. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The stakes couldn’t be higher. Digital
competence is an assumed skill—but for some, it’s not self-evident how to
acquire this toolkit in order to practice it.
And what exactly is the standard of practice? And how, when, and why does this expectation
determine what is demanded, and in which arenas? In sum, how can this skill be measured?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">UNESCO defines a world-wide
standard for digital literacy as “The ability to access, manage, understand,
integrate, communicate, evaluate, and create information safely and
appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and
entrepreneurship.” The best way to
understand this enlarged view of literacy is to compare it to the functional
version: “The ability to read a newspaper, sign a check, and write a postcard.” This is now merely the baseline for the
digital-age literacy test. New
challenges are always emerging, in an endless learning curve. This makes literacy a constantly moving
target, even for the highest elite.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">National digital illiteracy rates
persist. The US Department of Education reports that across ethnic divides,
computer literacy is another basis of unequal opportunity, with 11% White, 22%
Black, and 35% Hispanic adults less than fluent in digital media. Even 5% with Associate degrees aren’t
literate, as well as a higher 41% without high school diplomas. The digital divide still halts universal
access (Rockefeller Institute of Government, July 2022). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Moving forward, for the “blind
review” process, I had to “anonymize” most of the content, a strange ritual of
removing anything linked to my name from anything linked to my work to shield
from reviewers’ eyes. This was a skill I
didn’t have and haven’t needed—until now.
This meant I had to completely omit key content that would have given
away my identity. But there was no way of
working around these statements—they had to go.
These deletions would have explained why I was submitting to this
particular journal rather than any other, a key point of the rationale
important to selling the article: that this is a follow-up to my previous one,
now widely cited, published in the past century. * <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">In effect, the uploading task amounts
to learning new software – for a single operation. The same goes for thesis and dissertation
projects. They impose a high demand for
mastery over a documentation system that too often gets applied just once – and
at the same time must be skilled enough to pass and graduate with the
degree. Just the uploading operation itself
is a self-taught process without any real way of knowing what will be asked
for—or why. All this effort is applied
atop the already “sunk cost” (term from economics) of months or even years of
writing and research. It’s distressing to think about whether this submission
process reduces the chances of the less-digitally literate of being
published. From my own experience, there
is no question that this dynamic is actively operating to favor the tech literate.
And as a colleague in the data world
puts it, what’s being tested for is compliance over competence. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Seeking out an equalizer, I was
able to recruit a long-time colleague, an excellent “explainer” and recently
retired software engineer. “I’m sure if
you had cast your annoyance aside momentarily you could have easily done the
same [anonymizing a document],” he noted.
In fact, there is a relatively simple set of steps to remove “Author” from
the Track Changes program. You just need
to know where to look. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Like productivity expert David
Allen, who has admitted to being “semi-literate” in his classic <i>Getting
Things Done</i>, I must concede this status is just not enough anymore. David
Herlich, my coach that night, agrees, up to a point. He created TheSportsTutor.com, a personal
consultation service which aims to explain the complexities of sports to brand-new
participants. He told me I was just like
many of the people he has met and hopes to serve. “I didn’t really do anything,” he says,
“except to help you see what you could already do.” It is the frame of mind, not knowledge, that
blocks performance. This insight certainly
fuels learning as discovery of one’s own powers. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">And yes, the Internet
helps. But what I’ve noticed is that
there is always more than one answer to any question, raising the problem of distinguishing
between answers to pick the one to go with.
You really never know if you got
that right—without an explainer with an expert perspective. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">_____<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p>*“Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form,” <i>Journal
of Popular Culture</i>, Summer 1981: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.00116.x </p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-70873023897175036072023-02-10T12:39:00.001-08:002023-02-10T12:53:39.080-08:00The Emotional Journey of Uncertainty<p>“Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of
uncertainty.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>--Jacob Bronowski, <span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #5f6368; font-size: 14px; white-space: nowrap;">Polish-British mathematician</span> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjB06dN5u4cMnTRoBea7gdCQM8cOMkzbBbqn9J9TcwXet8g31NH9Tzy_23IrHw4ewlJ4t8rX0ozoegLHuNVq4DwmJrBEFHHHxr572RTQip5FeEKsoWMTPZ9N_KcEkADI0xJikAkdA_56RgxHvPWph2T7NIwu4Cbk9Cza6dcL0Zq4bohfxfWgYERRZfO" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="975" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjB06dN5u4cMnTRoBea7gdCQM8cOMkzbBbqn9J9TcwXet8g31NH9Tzy_23IrHw4ewlJ4t8rX0ozoegLHuNVq4DwmJrBEFHHHxr572RTQip5FeEKsoWMTPZ9N_KcEkADI0xJikAkdA_56RgxHvPWph2T7NIwu4Cbk9Cza6dcL0Zq4bohfxfWgYERRZfO=w400-h134" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>Earth vs. Venus</b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">2<sup>nd</sup><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><b>position from sun</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span>3<sup>rd</sup></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">24 hours<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><b>length of day</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>5,832
hours<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">365 days<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>length of year</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>225 days<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1<span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><b>moons</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>0<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">59 F<span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><b>average
temperature</b><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>864 F<o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">7,926 miles<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><b>diameter<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> 7,</span></span>520 miles<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">“Destination
Venus,” <i>Nat Geo Kids</i>, Feb. 2023, p. 20<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 107%;">Photo: Pixabay<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have read <i>National Geographic</i>, and the Kids
edition, for years. I find the children’s edition of more than one periodical
to be fun, direct, timely, and a quick index to what is going on in popular
culture. Grade-school textbooks are a
good example of this principle. They
need to get to concepts and themes quickly and can’t do the kind of
context-building and nuance that adults can tolerate. So they are a better guideline in several
ways. And usually, factual. But not always.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Primates—that’s us—are primarily creatures of emotion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are first emotional beings, only
secondarily rational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reason
emotion needs to be “untaught” –as children we learn to restrain and hide our
feelings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rational thought—writing,
math, spelling, science, accounting, engineering, bridge—are trained skills;
otherwise they would be intuitive; we’d all be whizzes at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we don’t understand our own emotional
lives all that well, just to make social judgments about what’s appropriate
when and where and with what other people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the point Daniel Goleman makes in his
book <i>Emotional Intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Dale
Carnegie put it this way: “When dealing with people, remember that you are not
dealing with creatures of logic but with creatures of emotion--creatures
bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And creatures whose rational faculties are far more limited
than their emotional ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I observed
in reading an otherwise great article about the planet Venus written for
kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I then saw something curious
on the chart comparing Earth to Venus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Position from the sun—Earth 2nd, Venus 3rd.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read this statement again, then once more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus began my Journey into Uncertainty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t earth “Third planet from the sun”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began to think about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But isn’t <i>National Geographic</i> among
the topmost trusted sources on earth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Could the planets, without my knowledge, have somehow changed
positions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article also notes that
any visitor to Venus would burst into flame at an average temperature of 864
degrees F or be crushed by the planet’s intense pressure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe the Venusian orbit distorted to move
outside earth’s?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Uncertainty Journey<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Case Study: “Destination Venus,”
<i>National Geographic Kids</i>, February 2023, pp. 20-21<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><br />
<b>Questioning</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this true – is
Venus really third planet from the sun, and earth second? I certainly thought
it was the other way around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For my entire
lifetime.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>Denial</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can’t be true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’d all be fried or crushed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>More questioning</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Did the planets trade places because of some orbital switch-out?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>Sense-making</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This just makes no sense; it doesn’t line up
with anything else I know.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>Investigation</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll look this up online, then send off a
query to the magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>Outcome</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>National Geographic:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, you’re right!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We messed up that fact. Thanks for reading so
closely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>Further questioning</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did this happen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And my favorite question as a former editor:
“How many people looked this over at the editorial offices?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then my next-favorite question: “What
else did they miss?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Considering this is
a relatively wide error—about 26 million miles off (compared to earth at 93
million).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The measures in astronomy are
based on the AU, astronomical unit, which is earth’s distance from the sun. Therefore,
switching to the #2 orbit—as this error does -- would change the very base
value of AU, with a long range of side errors that come into focus the instant they
surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I couldn’t find how the second and third planets got
switched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I contacted NGeoKids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is what I asked the editors: “Isn’t
earth the third planet, not the second, from the sun?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has the usual order changed for some
reason?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the effect of this
change on the AU basis of astronomy—the astronomical unit?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The editors readily admitted the mistake. Here’s what they
had to say: “We did indeed accidentally swap the sun positions for the
planets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you for reaching out and
for reading NGeoKids so carefully!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the universe has been restored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this make anything better, though?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this mean National Geo is depending on
its readers for fact-checking?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
isn’t really reassurance – just one more piece of evidence that in the search
for truth, constant vigilance must be the rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps this points to two operating uncertainty principles.
1) We are slow to question information that looks self-assured and
authoritative, even when we feel fairly sure it is in error; 2) Perhaps if we
questioned factual statements more often, it would serve to keep facts on track
and lend some confidence to the knowledge we rely on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we can’t constantly be questioning the
truth of every statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To operate
day-to-day, we assume that 99% of factoids are reliable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s because we can’t live in a world we
don’t trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is Uncertainty Avoidance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Human beings don’t like uncertainty because we don’t know
what to think about uncertain situations nor how to make decisions and act on
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why we make up stories,
“facts” to fill in the gaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just
can’t leave unsure things alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not for
more than a minute or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider this
headline about a P-51 Mustang pilot in <i>The Week</i> (not the Kids’ version)
(Feb. 10, 2023, p. 35): “The Tuskegee Airman Who Escaped a Lynching.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My initial take was that this obit for Harold
Brown, age 98 and one of the last of his unit, was going to be about racial
prejudice in the American South.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On reading the copy, the lynch
mob was in fact Austrian, in the last months of WWII, when he was shot down
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another surprise—it was a police
officer saved Brown, who was “sent to a prison camp—his first experience of
integration.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The truth filled in
because I kept reading.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The nice thing about knowledge is that errors of fact can be
corrected by digging deeper when the red flags appear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vancouver, Canada isn’t the capital of
anything—it may be the primary city of British Columbia, but it’s Victoria on
Vancouver Island that is the capital of British Columbia – a wrong answer I was
part of making, a victim of team groupthink, to a pub quiz question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I was just returning from a week’s trip
there—the shame of it still haunts me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here
is another: the number of married people (worldwide) that ends with an odd
number?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not sure about that, but this
could reflect multiple husbands / wives. Check to see if the number is in
couples, not individuals. Then on entering a medical office last week, I was
handed a fill-in form in English; the small lady beside me was handed another
in Chinese, without being asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
reaction was amused (it could well have been otherwise) as she explained she
was Vietnamese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Venus does have the most volcanoes in our solar system:
something over 1600.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its rotation is in
the opposite direction of ours, and from most planets, called retrograde
motion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>NASA’s VERITAS mission in 2028 will
orbit the planet and map its terrain using radar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The European Space Agency EnVision mission in
2032 will map the sub-surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
perhaps both will confirm its position at 67 million miles from the sun,
compared to ours of 143 million miles…. Did I say 143?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I meant 93, of course. 143 is the average distance
for Mars, as everyone knows, the 4th planet from the sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easy to get confused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why every person needs to be their own
fact-checker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is often a
research-project-level demand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
could not resist restoring the solar system to its usual and correct order: the
one I know and love.<o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-24673191437456485682023-01-17T07:56:00.003-08:002023-01-17T07:56:58.909-08:00Building a Brain<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhE-hWgr2QdH2S0_9N8DL_3aO_GU66Qk8o_bWxWYRxJwIbrtddpasQRhIdUFT4AXgy6lVH_hnwIiV1aQREkJiJiydwu12bbkEBrtRvGz_jgjveipfk0VpQMeAGeLBKLWqlpJi14gPND_NvylfmJvzt8QzgScTgbpjQmAh35u25pVBkhF24VYXQ9tzdN" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhE-hWgr2QdH2S0_9N8DL_3aO_GU66Qk8o_bWxWYRxJwIbrtddpasQRhIdUFT4AXgy6lVH_hnwIiV1aQREkJiJiydwu12bbkEBrtRvGz_jgjveipfk0VpQMeAGeLBKLWqlpJi14gPND_NvylfmJvzt8QzgScTgbpjQmAh35u25pVBkhF24VYXQ9tzdN" width="282" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Now routinely cited as the father of modern computing, Alan
Turing was always focused on the interplay between human processes and
programming for machines.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">In the early
1940s he was talking with colleagues about “building a brain”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">(Alan Cowell, </span><i style="text-align: left;">AI</i><span style="text-align: left;">, <i>NYTimes</i>, 2020).</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">In 1950 he developed the Turing test, a
program that worked to simulate human-generated thinking by answers to
questions by AI methods.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Deep learning
was needed, in which human tutored computers on to think like us, millions of
hours per day, in computer centers all over the planet.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">The idea is to take computers to a level
where, like humans, they become self-teaching entities.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">The hope is that they can also learn to
reason—perhaps better than us.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In a recent <i>Atlantic</i> piece, Adam Kirsch examines
developments in brain research that propose the potential of uploading the
complete human mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such an operation
would involve a brain scanner able to detect and record an information pattern
called the “connectome,” the mapping of the brain’s neural connections through
the synapses across all its many levels and modes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All human cognition is created by these
dynamic interactions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This map, the
wiring diagram of the brain’s workings, is analogous to the human genome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would be an artificial reality for
thought, emotion, and reasoning that could replicate the thinking / feeling /
experience of a total brain – almost more real than real—or at least a resource
to connect human sense-making with machine learning. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">An uploaded mind won’t dwell in the
same environment as we do, but that’s not necessarily a disadvantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the contrary, because a virtual
environment is much more malleable than a physical one, an uploaded mind could
have experiences and adventures we can only dream of, like living in a movie or
a video game (“The End of Us,”<i> Atlantic</i>, Jan/Feb 2023, pp. 64-65).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This complete artificial intelligence, using every
affordance of human thinking, is capable of a powerful merging of human with
machine intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the investment
world, AI has disclosed the potential of computer intelligence that is superior
to human hunches about the market and tracking its movements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This intelligence is based on projecting the
past, in fine-grained detail, into the future, incorporating multiple factors
beyond the ability of even the best investors to recognize and trace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The challenge facing the investment world is
that the human mind has not become any better than it was a hundred years ago
…the time will come when no human investment manager will be able to beat the
computer” (<i>Institutional Investor’s Alpha</i>, online journal for the hedge
fund industry).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, the brain is organic and its structures and
dynamics are not computer programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While a computer can win against the best human players at chess, Go,
and even Jeopardy, we have yet to see computer programs perfect self-driving
cars, body mobility, long-term planning, or hiring decisions. Herbert Simon,
the political scientist who coined the term “bounded rationality,” (1957) did
so to counter the economics model of the completely rational brain (“rational man”)
making purely rational money decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But Simon’s term can also be applied to describe the limitations of
machines in achieving artificial general intelligence—as machines, they are
severely limited in replicating human cultural and common sense, cause and
effect, symbolic recognition, implication finding, future projections, and decision
making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reason that the
simple ideal image of enhanced human thinking is a human being--using a calculator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The interactive power of the digitalplus the
neural appears to offer the best promise of enhanced decision making based on
what each does best. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A few facts about the brain here: One of the problems: no
great unified theory of intelligence yet exists, and it requires mega-computing
power to even approach simulating many of the general intelligence scenarios we take
for granted, such as meeting new people, learning a new language, telling
jokes, handling a crisis (mental or physical), and dealing with unknown outcomes
for a new decision demand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Involved in
change and experience are thousands of neurons of our store of 86 billion in
the brain, meaning a potential of 100 trillion interconnections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The European Union launched the Human Brain
Project in 2013 with the goal of a complete simulation of the entire human
brain by 2023 (Epstein, “The Empty Brain,” <i>Aeon</i>, 2016).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has yet to be achieved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That is because the human cognition system is not just an
information processor but far more layered and interactive as a sophisticated
universe of connected thinking and emotion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This includes informal logic, seeing the viewpoints of others (theory of
mind), understanding implications, nuance, multiple interacting variables,
modes and layers of reality, and hyperreality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even a three-year-old’s cognition outstrips the capacity of
sophisticated computer programs to read cultural reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Notes Cade Metz, writing on the use of AI in medicine (<i>AI</i>,
2020) on current state-of-the-art issues: “Able to recognize patterns in data
that humans could never identify on their own, [computer] neural networks can
be enormously powerful in the right situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But even experts have difficulty understanding why such networks make particular
decisions and how they teach themselves.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No computer program yet has been able to replicate the
activity and accomplishments of human neural networks, the thousands of neurons
involved in change, experience, and memory that humans achieve instinctively,
but must be taught (by humans) to computers as deep learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Computers operate by fixed focus on
well-defined tasks; at the other end of the scale, humans use WB (the model for
<b>W</b>hole <b>B</b>rain <b>E</b>mulation machines follow) to deal with
change, adaptability, and handling problems we’ve never encountered before in
situations that are also unique—with incomplete information and unknowable
outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ever since we first emerged as
homo sapiens, we’ve been trying to find ways to understand our own intelligence
and the brain that centers it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Speech engines are one such example as a means to
understanding natural language, as in voice recognition and translation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> L</span>anguage is a complex program in
itself, like the brain, with multiple modes, levels, rules, and styles, depending on purpose
and context (both text and spoken), and the social relations involved. Because of this complexity,
understanding language intent requires a broad approach to expression and meaning
interpretation that stalls out the computer while the nimble brain fills in all
the gaps creatively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deep neural
networks are now showing greater sophistication in facing down the complexity
of machine learning for language analysis.</p><p class="MsoNormal">____</p><p class="MsoNormal">Image from Pixabay</p><p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-27393216422830857302022-12-17T13:49:00.001-08:002023-01-17T08:25:47.238-08:00Easy Languages <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYcdUtScnTaKOchQCnMpvT4cxA0GLgxohcQYca307VeUJM351SAPHWcZxdDZcP_yHuo0h-jfTMx89aQhtZRZKTKos_b60WUwjRZqyyzjkZLTF8WRa4ks3JCp0lIPAAVYIUQD45bQw5glBkSmyS4PBcNSCRsNZtrnWtCglIqPh8X1j_A6b-HU6jLUrl" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="975" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYcdUtScnTaKOchQCnMpvT4cxA0GLgxohcQYca307VeUJM351SAPHWcZxdDZcP_yHuo0h-jfTMx89aQhtZRZKTKos_b60WUwjRZqyyzjkZLTF8WRa4ks3JCp0lIPAAVYIUQD45bQw5glBkSmyS4PBcNSCRsNZtrnWtCglIqPh8X1j_A6b-HU6jLUrl=w475-h317" width="475" /></a></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"> Photo from Pixabay</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><br />
<p class="MsoNormal">Follow-up to “Hard Languages,” November 13, last month’s
topic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What is an easy language for English speakers to approach
and immerse in? Since language is such a
basic key to culture, familiarity or fluency have a great enabling effect in
opening up an entire cultural dimension, either in one country or across a wide
cultural empire (as Spanish, French, Portuguese, or Arabic provide). The issue here is the time and exposure
needed to achieve the needed level of comfort and speed in sending and
receiving--or speaking and decoding. The
artificial intelligence revolution was jump-started by the US government goal
to develop a machine program that could learn to translate and transcribe
natural language. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Babies under six months can distinguish speech sounds from
any language in the world. But the brain
soon begins to focus on a single language practice and its sound differences
and starts to ignore other distinctions less important in that language. Young children can learn two languages
equally well. The window to learn any
language seems to be 12 years—beyond that, language acquisition doesn’t map
well to the maturing brain as its patterns become set (Linden, <i>The
Accidental Mind</i>, 2007). Acquiring everyday facility in a language is one
thing. Mastering its nuances, its
cultural structures, is quite ornate, involving a long process of immersion and
practice in context. That is the
principle behind the idea of shibboleth, a difference in pronunciation that
separates native insiders from outsiders.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Languages within the same language family are typically the
easiest to learn because of familiar cognates (roots in common), grammar, written
form (Latin alphabet), conjugation rules, tonality, and pronunciation. For
English, that is West Germanic. This branch includes English, German, Dutch,
Afrikaans, and Yiddish. 80% of the most-used English vocabulary, and the
grammar, is Germanic. The larger family grouping
is Indo-European, spoken by the largest percentage of speakers worldwide—close
to half. English worldwide has 1.5
billion speakers, of which just under 400 million (about a quarter) call it
their native language. And for
non-native speakers from other language families, English is not an easy acquisition. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Selecting a new language also depends on its useful cultural
position: where the language is spoken,
how widely distributed, and its global media influence. Non-European languages that use the Latin
alphabet, like Malay and Swahili, are cases in point. Malay is the lingua franca across several
southeast Asian countries; Swahili is the trading language of East Africa (as a
second language) with a rich Arabic vocabulary, sharing our Latin alphabet. Indonesian also uses Latin script and has a simple
grammar. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Since the first century BCE, Swahili has served 50 million
people as it developed as the lingua franca of trade and the national language
of Kenya and Tanzania, influenced by Arabic (Swahili means “coastal “) widely
used in Uganda, Burundi, DRC, and the islands of Zanzibar and Comoros—the
standard version is based in Zanzibar City.
Because pronunciation is regular and the alphabet Roman, Swahili is one of
the exotic easy language to approach and acquire. It has a wide range across several cultures
and a long history. It can also be heard in south Ethiopia and Somalia and
northern Zambia and Mozambique, and even Madagascar (<i>Lonely Planet</i>
phrasebook, 2008). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then there is the cultural aspect: what does the language afford as access to
the richness of history, literature, religion, art traditions, and connections
with other cultures within the language and beyond? French and English have been historically
important in the West because of their status and portability in
diplomacy. As the world turns
increasingly toward the Eastern cultural dimension (India, China, Japan) this
ratio is shifting from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Proximity to English is one index of easiness. Frisian is the most similar to English, but
has just a half-million speakers in northwest Europe. Spanish, however, has over 534 million speakers
worldwide, and is the official language of 21 countries. English speakers already have the greatest
range as the language of business, science, and world politics in the form of “Globish,”
basically acting as the universal auxiliary language. Legacy of the British Empire, it is already
the official language of 29 countries. Considering
the time-intensive demands of learning a completely new tongue, there is little
incentive to acquire one. <span style="background: white;">From an English-speaking perspective,
most Romance and Indo-European languages take about 600+ hours to learn, while
tonal languages or those from the Sino-Tibetan language family can take 2000+
hours to learn. (ScienceABC). </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unless language links you to your family’s heritage. Our
research director has become an Italian “citizen living abroad” (in the US for
now) through his mother’s ancestry, an option that several other countries
(like Ireland and Mexico) are introducing with the goal of attracting Americans
back to the mother country to live with their incomes. The European Union opens the borders
dramatically, since citizens of one member country can live and work in any of
the current 27. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some of these languages are close to English (like the
Germanic family members Frisian, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish); others seem
far afield (Romanian, Afrikaans, Indonesian) (FSI source) .
Of course there are constructed languages and ancient languages that are
mostly academic, not spoken, or extinct, like Gothic. These open out to other cultural worlds,
peoples, histories, a kind of hyperreality across time. Ancient languages are
still spoken or written today, or are direct ancestors of those spoken today,
like modern Greek, the easiest to learn with a non-Latin script (already
familiar through science), and a basic medium of Western Civ. A more familiar example is modern Hebrew,
based on the ancient model but updated.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">----<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p><span style="background-color: white;">The US Foreign Service Institute,
beginning with its mission in language training after WWII for its in-country
staffing, has been a good source of language manuals and tapes available free
online.</span> </p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-7771490692927819222022-11-13T13:20:00.000-08:002022-11-13T13:20:36.628-08:00Hard Languages <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2VNDTgKg703gZqX8Sv9U3D5Isp9DLvExHxgwJDbosdGic_fXdhfQk3ocJvgUq553AHWCVLBwwr0YJ1T7fueD_DprjR85UxWrodM-dvF-jnu1AG9D1q02ILSnyWZhCVeXdDs70MrbMd2Le-EnlyK15CxXWZ4d-79oNLX_TxIpJDxvjIDVIHiFiPqO/s774/globe%20photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="774" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2VNDTgKg703gZqX8Sv9U3D5Isp9DLvExHxgwJDbosdGic_fXdhfQk3ocJvgUq553AHWCVLBwwr0YJ1T7fueD_DprjR85UxWrodM-dvF-jnu1AG9D1q02ILSnyWZhCVeXdDs70MrbMd2Le-EnlyK15CxXWZ4d-79oNLX_TxIpJDxvjIDVIHiFiPqO/s320/globe%20photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">“The limits of my language are the limits of
my world.”</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">– Philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein</span></div></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Arcane tribal languages in remote settings (South America,
Asia, Africa) would be the most daunting for English speakers. This is because of
their isolation from the mainstream languages of more populated areas, and
therefore have little in common with familiar Roman and Greek roots in the
Indo-European tradition. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you want to try your hand at a south/eastern European
language, try Romanian. It is the only Latin-based language in that
geography, and shows many cognate commonalities with English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And although Danish is a close cognate to
English, its 27 phonetically distinct vowels make it much harder to understand
and master than Swedish and Norwegian. <span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Also complicating Danish
are its varied glottal stops that are both hard to hear and hard to pronounce for
non-native speakers. </span>While Danes can pick up both these Nordic systems,
both the two other speaking groups have more trouble with Danish, and
pronunciation is exacting (Jens Lund, Ph.D., folklorist and native Danish
speaker).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Are you up for a real language challenge that will allow you
to speak to under 100 other specialists after years of work? Then
consider the constructed language (conlang) domain. Klingon would have to be
one of the most challenging. This language was invented for Star Trek III
(1984) as a formal integrated speech for the Klingons in the Trek
universe. After a dictionary was published, many people dabbled in its
difficult spelling and pronunciation, but only a handful (under 100 estimated)
have become skilled speakers able to converse with each other and understand
the film tracks. In addition, since Klingon speech focuses largely on
spacecraft and warfare, it has limited use for day-to-day conversation. It is
popular with linguists for its creative aspects played out within the general
principles of language. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of natural languages (as opposed to constructed cases), it
is interesting that Mandarin Chinese is the hardest to learn for English
speakers—because of the thousands of ideographs necessary for written
comprehension, as well as a four-tone scale for meaning. But it is also
the most widely spoken global language (besides Globish, basic English spoken
as an auxiliary tongue). Arabic, Polish, and Russian follow, the first
also forcing a totally unfamiliar writing system. The US Foreign Service Institute
groups languages for difficulty from 1 through 4, with the “Super-hard” Category
4 including Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Japanese, and Korean. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Classical languages are more difficult simply because of their
restricted lives in religious and academic contexts, but express a range<span style="color: #00b050;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">"Classical Greek and
Sanskrit are extremely difficult because they are so highly inflected--hundreds
of forms of the verb and numerous case endings. Late Greek (koine) simplifies
the grammar and thus is much easier to read and not particularly
difficult. Egyptian grammar and vocabulary are very simple. Its
only real difficulty is mastering the hieroglyphs, which are very few compared
to Chinese" (Prof. Robert Littman, Classical studies, University of Hawaii
at Manoa).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How about learning a tribal language? There are many
still active around the globe, the most in New Guinea (numbering around 850),
the most diverse linguistic area known. The Khoisan language of South Africa
is among the world’s oldest, at 60,000 years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Closer, in the US, the three leading tribal
languages still spoken are Navajo (by far the largest and hardest) in Arizona,
Yupik in Central Alaska, and Sioux in the upper Midwest and Canada. Navajo
was famously employed as an unbreakable talking code by native-speaking marines
in WWII. They are all difficult, made more so by their roots in exotic and ancient
cultures, arcane to learn and relate to vocabulary—and have only in modern
times enjoyed a written format. Hawaii is the only US state with two
official languages—Hawaiian and English--as of 1978.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along the range of tribal language
difficulty, Hawaiian is among the easiest. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So there are many “hardest languages” out there to
appreciate, if not to master as a fluent speaker, and each has a rich cultural
component. Klingon was born from the constructed science fiction of the
Star Trek universe, so does have a soundtrack, but a steep learning for
pronunciation, structure, and symbol alphabet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Klingon was designed to look and sound truly
alien, which it does as a function of its weirdly off-center profile without
cognates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(However, Duolingo now actually
offers the course.) The most widely spoken constructed lingua franca,
Esperanto, has an estimated million speakers world-wide, but little cultural
baggage (literature, history, religion, film, cuisine).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, fluency can be reached in one-tenth
the time of natural languages, and in itself, Esperanto offers a quickly effective
base for language-learning capability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">-----<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Next blog:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Easy”
Languages<o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-54259399318340490072022-11-05T17:47:00.001-07:002022-11-07T06:10:13.869-08:00Acing the College Essay<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAQX2wNf-iAX7ruViaR0uNH9QyAnnaQJMo_tORSrKWLovoCbW8qoizAhDuqtFqoT2q1Wil2dMtnd4oawm8UL3Q5-1sbvcxtvPPTV_DH70m6ht-8rSIGQVg0C6bczETDb_ozXNtXusXNcED1whHxNliScY3xhi56fmTisoye_PMG-yWVaylJoaSdELX" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="780" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAQX2wNf-iAX7ruViaR0uNH9QyAnnaQJMo_tORSrKWLovoCbW8qoizAhDuqtFqoT2q1Wil2dMtnd4oawm8UL3Q5-1sbvcxtvPPTV_DH70m6ht-8rSIGQVg0C6bczETDb_ozXNtXusXNcED1whHxNliScY3xhi56fmTisoye_PMG-yWVaylJoaSdELX" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Acing the College Essay <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I answered a call for experts on the college essay by the <i>New
York Post</i>. Here are my answers to
their questions about this high-value writing challenge: the personal profile,
an essay that can make (or even break) the candidate’s chances. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We are at the starting line for college applications. The
early-decision deadline for many colleges is November 1<sup>st</sup>. Between November and February, upwards of 5
million college applicants—including 65% of high-school graduates--will be
struggling to compose an essay of 250 to 650 words in their “authentic voice.” The
goal is to portray themselves as uniquely interesting college material for
selective schools across the country.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here are a few heuristics—rules of thumb--applicants need to
know for this essay portion, the personal statement, of their application. An effective essay is important because by
itself it has an important job. This is to
focus, or refocus, the whole application: by putting a face and voice to the
facts of student grades, activities, and awards, or to temper a less-than-stellar
record by showcasing insight, values, and clear expression. As essay coach Alan Gelb puts it in his book <i>Conquering
the College Admissions Essay in 10 Steps</i>, “…admissions office counsellors
name the essay as the single most important ‘tip factor’—that is, the thing
that can tip your application in your favor, all other factors being equal.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><b>Q: What is your experience in writing and
education?</b> As an academic editor and
dissertation project manager, for several decades I have been an admissions
essay coach, as well as Faculty Reader of the Advanced Placement test in
English for the College Board. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><b>Q: Why is the college essay such an
important part of the application process?</b> The college personal essay is
quite possibly the most important piece of writing you will ever undertake. While something outside the main application,
it can be a high card in your hand if handled well. “It can turn around the way the committee
looks at your other achievements, acting as the catalyst that can channel positive
attention on to acceptance,” says Steve Goodman, admissions strategist and author
of the results-based <i>College Admissions Together</i>. Individual schools, and the central Common
APP, issue specific “prompts” (which can change) to set the focus, including
“Describe a person you admire,” “Personal growth,” “Learning from obstacles,”
“Solving a problem,” and “What captivates you?” (Princeton Review)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><b>Q: Can you point to a leading thing <u>not</u>
to do in the essay?</b> Select your
essay topic with the reader in mind, the admissions officer, who will give you
under ten minutes to impress them. (In-person
interviews are increasingly rare). The
topic might not even be your intuitive first pick of what’s most important
about your character and experience. Think of something unique to you, your family,
community, or values. Example from a
student client’s first draft: “I am unique.
You will never meet anyone like me.” My edit: <i>Everyone</i> is unique; it’s what we do
with that position that counts. Here’s
the question: How did you mobilize your
unique qualities to make a difference for yourself and others? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">We then revised the initial statement to
read “I realized that I could use my special talents to create value not just
for myself but for others, from my family out to school and community.” Then describe how. Avoid topics that many others will gravitate
to: My trip to Israel (or European /
Asian tour), gender or religious conversion, why I hate / love / admire my
parent / stepparent, and political opinions, unless you are involved in
political work. Think of something either
off-beat or seemingly ordinary to signal an important principle you learned,
then <u>applied</u>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">The goal of the personal essay is to show off
your insight, self-awareness, ability to derive value and meaning from any
situation (family business, volunteering, off-brand sports, assignments,
reading, challenges from family, peers, authority figures). Showcase your own specialized perception, talents,
expertise, ideas, even hopes and fears, and the doubts you have struggled with—showing
how you coped, managed, or overcame them, and how you were able to surmount resistance
with resilience. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><b>Q:
What about other best practices?</b>
This would be obvious to experienced applicants: No texting spellings (e.g.,” I xpect 2hav evn
mor xper”); use a translation program if you need one. Don’t rely on your own judgment about how
well you write; show your “finished” draft around to your English teacher, an
editor online, your parents, assuming they are literate types, or other
seasoned writers. Your own peers, unless
they are highly qualified, probably don’t make the grade here. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">But here’s a warning: admissions experts know immediately when an
essay looks “cooked”: written over 50% by an expert. It can’t be a world-class essay when your
grades are Bs and Cs. If it’s 85%
mechanically correct, and the ideas are solid, that level will be fine. Students tend to put off the essay until
last, but it’s important to work on it over time, starting slowly the summer
before the due date. (Yes! This means draft after draft as you discover
yourself in the text.) This is the
critical piece you spend the most time building up by multiple drafts, a much-encouraged
method, and each stage takes the time of close attention. No matter how skilled a writer you believe
you are, this is no midnight-the-night-before task. As a reward, this experience will greatly
strengthen your essay writing in all school subjects.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><b>Q</b>:
<b>What can make the essay shine?</b>
Seek originality and insight-finding moments to describe and analyze. This means going beneath the surface of
people, incidents, and circumstances to discover what’s important and
perception-shifting about them. Dedicate
the time to focus, mind-map, then gather together a good number of thinking
pieces as paragraphs you can then pull together to construct your essay (and
note any word limits to be aware of). Find the unexpected insight, the extraordinary
embedded within “ordinary” scenarios. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">The idea is to show perception wedded to
knowledge (weaving in references to school reading), especially impressive to your
admissions readers. One of my clients
wrote a winning essay about watching Bill Cosby as TV’s Dr. Huxtable for his
medical school application; another covered her job mowing lawns with his
father when the family economy got tight for a business school placement. Responding to “most impressive historical
event,” another wrote about the explorations and innovations of the Phoenicians
as key to civilization-building—a personal view. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">Exploring
the many concepts implicit in ordinary experience, or to themes of human experience,
is the key to an intelligent take on the world (the same skill that marks great
literature, in fact) signals you are perceptive acceptance material who will
prove an asset to the incoming class. </p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p><p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-11179882452257317902022-10-01T10:58:00.000-07:002022-10-01T10:58:04.674-07:00Engineering Bias<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhL5jwgBGXYn6akNuS898U-r2vo3NRiILx53QzDXR97VH6dz9BmU68mnDekQN6MRsWqzR3BLxGVE8ptjGKJE-yJdg0ewmthnd8OFpGqwRJXJI9qOPZeVH_m0CIjbJfWIvQ6u-usROrRd5plEWWFfhoF1l1S66xb2-wPlCVHXwpSz_ElK75CI0sRz0tI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="294" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhL5jwgBGXYn6akNuS898U-r2vo3NRiILx53QzDXR97VH6dz9BmU68mnDekQN6MRsWqzR3BLxGVE8ptjGKJE-yJdg0ewmthnd8OFpGqwRJXJI9qOPZeVH_m0CIjbJfWIvQ6u-usROrRd5plEWWFfhoF1l1S66xb2-wPlCVHXwpSz_ElK75CI0sRz0tI" width="235" /></a></div><br /><br />
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“As fuel was consumed, the ship got
lighter and the acceleration more pronounced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rising at this exponential rate, the craft quickly reached maximum
acceleration, a limit defined <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not by the
ship’s power, but by the delicate human bodies inside</i>.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- Andy Weir, <i>The Martian</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“Engineering:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The discipline of applying technical and
scientific knowledge and physical resources to design and produce materials,
machines, devices, systems, and processes that meet at desired <i>objective and
specified criteria</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- <i>New World
Encyclopedia</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Objective and specified criteria” sounds highly rational
and technical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this demand set
starts out with human factors – the controller, driver, or user of whatever is
design-engineered. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are two
examples:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Case 1:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Climate control:</u>
Many female workers report office climates as chilly, whereas men feel quite
comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Medium.com writes that office building algorithms
for temperature regulation date back to the 60s, targeted to a 154-pound
male.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The smaller bodies and lower
muscle mass of women make them more susceptible to cold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless climate control is updated to reflect
this difference, including the growing numbers of women in the office
workforce, this male-bias design problem persists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Minor” design aspects like this set-point exert
a major impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Temperature affects not
just comfort but productivity (like keyboarding performance).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gender pay gap could be just one outcome
of off-balance climate control.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh4DKIBjtTGHbc-vgVcvrzi-AdzyG8Ll5Z4Ac14gU5oZWns0ZtmBIJBiiscE6SOQXWMccnQ3nBomh83Y-mi6Ge1zXJ-PU-M4XEUaypAdCJNVcclaleSmRDYnUEt03LxNOjXWjZWEaJg8oetq87cGVSdre_hGxxPsfqxJ9Pfa1L_oCVuy8ZgE5lpjXr6" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="439" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh4DKIBjtTGHbc-vgVcvrzi-AdzyG8Ll5Z4Ac14gU5oZWns0ZtmBIJBiiscE6SOQXWMccnQ3nBomh83Y-mi6Ge1zXJ-PU-M4XEUaypAdCJNVcclaleSmRDYnUEt03LxNOjXWjZWEaJg8oetq87cGVSdre_hGxxPsfqxJ9Pfa1L_oCVuy8ZgE5lpjXr6" width="160" /></a></div>Case 2:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Ergonomic
seating</u>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, a
product made to solve a niche-ability problem became a major bestseller by
virtue of its appeal across the board—inclusive of all body types and
positions. In 1994 Herman Miller contracted engineering to design a versatile office
seat that would accommodate any person in any posture at a range of seated
tasks—largely computer-based.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
could the chair angle well from straight to reclined, it was “lined” with an
elastic polymer mesh, first developed to prevent sores in bedridden
patients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Aeron chair—the “dot-com
throne”--quickly became one of the most popular high-end office chairs ever
made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Engineering <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The design, building, and use of engines, machines, and
structures begins with the physiology and mentality of human beings (biology
and psychology), moving from that base out into cultural values (how people,
things, and experiences are defined, weighted, and ranked across groups).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that people, not devices, are the
central core of design thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
human factors introduce a powerful bias into the “neutral” processes based on
math and physics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UX—user experience—experts
understand product users and their experiences—including thought conventions, emotional
feedback, intuitive assumptions, decision-making, task procedure, and options
for action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human Factors Engineering is
now a subspecialty, but all engineering projects must, ideally from the outset
of the design process, define, test, and evaluate the fit between design and
user (Goddard). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Typical of a project well understood in this way is medical
devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Less well understood are chronic-care
pharmaceutical regimens and effects, where compliance with use rules (adherence)
is only around 50% (and less for males than females), decreasing over time (<i>US
Pharmacist</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The countering
side-effects, dosage schedules, and low effectiveness of any given medication are
the main causes of non-adherence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
yet these counter-productive factors are not fully recognized or acknowledged
by the medical profession as obstacles to patient compliance that interfere
with the engineering of desired drug outcomes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bias<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first bias going in is that the designer looks and uses
the device in the same way the user would – but the first is an expert, whereas
the second, the typical user, is often a first-time user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don Norman, human-centered design expert,
puts it this way in the opening of his human factors book: “You are designing for
people the way you would like them to be, not the way they really are” (<i>The
Design of Everyday Things</i> p. 7). (When looking under the topic of bias in
engineering, you will see plenty of articles on bias—in the hiring of women and
minorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While diversity and
inclusion aren’t under discussion here, male dominance in the profession has design
outcomes as bias toward male users.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But bias is also an outcome of the human factors involved in
the designing assumptions of the (usually male) engineer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men and male bodies dominate medical testing,
with female subjects missing from medical trials as too complex and variable—and
at special risk for any adverse after-effects of testing. Differing male and
female physiology produce differing responses to drug type and dosage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In parallel, in the design of credit ratings, males
are given higher credit and spending limits—based on assumptions about long-term
earnings and employment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Microsoft
vision systems fail to recognize darker-skinned figures, and self-driving cars
have recognition systems less likely attuned to dark skin tone as well <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Techcrunch.com).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In AI, male voices are easier for voice programs to
recognize and interact with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Critics of
this bias have noted that most of the voice-activated home programs (like Siri
and Alexa) use the female assistant model of the young articulate admin with a
compliant and faintly flirtatious edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
can also be that female voices signal trust and reassurance—as advertisers are
aware in healthcare, beauty, and hospitality, versus the more authoritative
male voice (ESB Advertising). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This can result in critical situations in automotive design
and safety, as Carol Reiley writes in “When bias in product design means life
or death” (Techcrunch, Nov. 16, 2016).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
points out that test dummies are modelled on the average male body, so that
females are almost half-again as likely to be injured in a crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first female crash dummies entered the
design process in 2011, and since then, Toyota and Volvo have coded programs
dedicated to testing the smaller-scale female body as well as pregnant ones.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Self-centric design<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Designers use people like themselves (unconsciously) as
models for the majority of products and programs (male, white, US-based).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is no surprise but an outcome of
everyone’s natural homophily—the tendency to relate best to those who look,
think, and act like ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a
study by the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media, white men over-perceive
women and minorities in simulations where just 17% were women (seen as 50/50
ratio to men), with 33% women seen as the majority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an irony in view of the fact that
women make three-quarters of all consumer buying decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And consider just designing for the brain itself, which is
complex but runs best on programs and input that are first of all
intuitive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few people except the
technically inclined even bother to read a manual—a complex tech manual being
an even greater obstacle to operation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don Norman points to an early digital watch, the Junghans Mega 1000
Digital Radio Controlled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With five
buttons along the top, bottom, and side for operation, the follow questions
arise:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What is each button for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would you set the time? There is no way
to tell—no evident relationship between the operating controls and the
functions, no constraints, no apparent mappings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the buttons have multiple ways of
being used” (TDOET p. 27-28).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as
much as Norman likes the watch itself, even he (an expert in device design)
can’t recall these functions or how they are deployed in order to fully enjoy
the watch features.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Undiscovered bias makes engineering design much more
difficult to define or shape to the right purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bias skews the problem definition from
solving the problem that needs to be solved (not necessarily the one presented
by the client) for the right array of users, who will then be able to use the
device by the maps, concepts, and symbols already in their heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ignoring or failing to identify these factors
leads to more protracted processes to make corrections or change direction as
the team works to solve the wrong or misstated problem (Norman).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finding out what the actual issues are at
their root is the mandate of cultural analysis, based on human biological,
brain, and cultural motives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-90358275699287965372022-09-20T09:58:00.001-07:002022-09-20T10:01:04.691-07:00Genetic Variation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjHRFkhVXAEV0POmBIhJ8nDqwL10dRm0mM5xwpsD9K18MYiEho1ekEyaNakoM9trkbmhHi-wlXEB_pl16XPAoO65M5RE_TQgGhg7YdsgAH6j0d8_QoP9VAqD3XrxFLiEVKcpWxtdjQ3NrFqwbyP7QVHyha1DjSgjQ2-9oTNdNsyz4aXDCTubuAT0c-w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1920" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjHRFkhVXAEV0POmBIhJ8nDqwL10dRm0mM5xwpsD9K18MYiEho1ekEyaNakoM9trkbmhHi-wlXEB_pl16XPAoO65M5RE_TQgGhg7YdsgAH6j0d8_QoP9VAqD3XrxFLiEVKcpWxtdjQ3NrFqwbyP7QVHyha1DjSgjQ2-9oTNdNsyz4aXDCTubuAT0c-w" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">“Your genes load
the gun. Your lifestyle pulls the
trigger.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> --Mehmet Oz<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Genetic expression is the outcome of millions of connections
between genetic factors. The Human Genome Project, substantially final by 2003,
showed that the differences in DNA between people are just 0.1 percent:
one-tenth of a single percentage. We are
a single species and anyone who is human shares 99.9% of DNA with every other
human. So any two people are 99.9%
identical genetically – from any place or group on the planet. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Chimps, our closest biological relatives, share just
5.2-6.2% for the entire genome. Although
humans are primates in the great apes line, our last common ancestor lived 6 to
8 million years ago. The first four
million years of our history were lived out exclusively in Africa. Charles Darwin proposed this origin theory in
1871 but at the time this was considered a wild guess—while now richly
confirmed by fossil as well as genetic evidence (Smithsonian Museum of Natural
History).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But what about the differences? Height, weight, face shape, body build, skin
and eye color, hair texture, and straight, wavy, or curly hair are visible
outward expression (phenotypes). Susceptibility
to heritable disease like autism and schizophrenia, cancer, Type II diabetes, cystic
fibrosis, and heart disease, along with the physical body factors, are all very
marginal factors compared to what is shared.
Malarial resistance is traceable to the genetic lack of the Duffy
antigen in the red blood cell, protecting two-thirds of the African population
from the disease over thousands of years.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But the differences are what allow us to associate a single difference
with large groups, and that is where our attention—which is a cultural
artifact—is focused. The human
propensity to compare visible aspects between people is acute and has survival
origins, as for example in our keen ability to tell faces apart, even very
closely related ones. This highly developed skill, unique to humans, is one which
we rarely think about as a brain tool--except whenever we fail to recognize
someone we should-- is located in the fusiform gyrus, which so far appears to
be dedicated to this single operation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Gender is the leading biological difference between
people. On the gender side, human births
show a ratio bias toward boys – 105 male births versus 100 for girls. One explanation for this off-balance is that
fewer males live to adulthood, so the male imbalance levels off
eventually. We focus on gender, though,
not because it is a biological reality, but because such a rich heritage of
meaning and behavior has been built up around the male / female binary difference. Gender has greater cultural weight than aa
simple biological category. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Each individual has a total of 20,000 to 25,000 genes. But there are 3 billion base pairs within the
species, which means that any pair of humans differs by 3 million. With 3 billion DNA letters in the human
genome, sequencing them is among the most ambitious science project of all
time, along with splitting the atom. The
HGP is the standard for all research in this arena. As change expert Virginia Satir has noted, a surgeon
can go anywhere on earth and operate on any person at all; we are that
standardized physically. Now we have a far
finer-tuned standard, the blueprint based on molecular-scale reality explaining
what makes us both different--and the same.
<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #121212; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Within any species, genetic variation
can result from several sources. <span class="cursor-pointer">Mutations</span>,
the changes in the sequences of genes in <span class="cursor-pointer">DNA</span>, are one source of genetic variation—without
them, genetic evolution would not be possible. G<span class="cursor-pointer">ene
flow</span>, another source, is the movement of genes between
different groups, along with our long history of mobility across land and
water. S<span class="cursor-pointer">exual reproduction</span> leads to the
creation of new combinations of genes (National Geographic Resource
Library).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #121212; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genetic changes over time can trace
human origins, development, and mobility. Genomics is the study of individual
genome and gene interactions along with the effects of environmental factors
(and fitness outcomes). </span>Our
homogeneity indicates a young species—less than a quarter million years old for
modern humans. Individuals from widely separated groups can be more similar
than individuals from the same group, which is why the concept of race is
without scientific basis. The widest difference
between groups is actually found in Africa, giving credence to the African
origin hypothesis, in which a subset of that continent’s population moved out
60,000 years ago to populate the earth. Meanwhile the African genetic story has maintained
the oldest genome, which continued to generate variations leading to modern
distinctions between groups.<o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Natural selection made possible by genetics favors some
genes over others as more survival-friendly, including cultural values-based
biases that select for some traits (like height or health) over others. So the genome, too, has a bias—it tends
toward better survivability over time and across generations. (The peppered moth
wing color, from light to dark, being the classic example of selection for survival
in industrial Manchester.) Whatever our
genetics, it is finally culture and its selective values, or positive bias,
that “pulls the trigger” on how genetic expression operates as a social
force. This means that it is culture,
not biology, that determines what genetic variations mean to our thought and
action—whether advantageous or detrimental.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Photo: Pixabay</p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-83713316507356940702022-08-30T16:36:00.005-07:002022-08-31T14:28:20.498-07:00Positive Bias: How cultural values drive our thinking<p> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7PQeeW1nES2GhaI-H0fGISQpKMC9NECE5qhg4GEY3Dh4-TShyLrtrvibr3-T3v0pdGp_lj8HbtBfTsL_erfTXd-BrdiFRf1KHtToga3UU8-_pdYbTyr0DdEgf-UJug-p_QXE8fDpcuoPAeyj_LIVHLta99a2GZCqYa5TmMAu2hl_CSQHpi6u463i1/s1479/cater%20to%20gentiles%20only%20sign%20(004).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1019" data-original-width="1479" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7PQeeW1nES2GhaI-H0fGISQpKMC9NECE5qhg4GEY3Dh4-TShyLrtrvibr3-T3v0pdGp_lj8HbtBfTsL_erfTXd-BrdiFRf1KHtToga3UU8-_pdYbTyr0DdEgf-UJug-p_QXE8fDpcuoPAeyj_LIVHLta99a2GZCqYa5TmMAu2hl_CSQHpi6u463i1/s320/cater%20to%20gentiles%20only%20sign%20(004).jpg" width="320" /></a></p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">Definition,
Merriam-Webster:</span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">“Bias:</span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">An attitude that always favors one way of
feeling or acting especially without considering any other possibilities.”</span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Definition, <i>Psychology
Today</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Bias is a natural
inclination for or against an idea, object, group, or individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is often learned and is highly dependent
on variables like a person’s socioeconomic status [class], race, ethnicity,
educational background, etc.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Engineering:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bias: System error<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span> </span>A thought
experiment:</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">Question: What is the first
thing you notice on meeting a new person?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">If you answered eyes,
race, age, class, or expression, you are wrong. Without even realizing it, the first thing you notice is gender – are they male or female, he or she? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> This question</span> is so naturally ingrained that we are
consciously unaware of even asking it. That is why so much
controversy surrounds the idea of transgender. It confounds what is normally a
simple recognition system unlike any other. Homosexuals are still male. Lesbians are still female. That’s easy to grasp. Transgender literally triggers not believing your eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Gender is the only
biological difference between people.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">If
that wasn’t your answer to our little thought experiment it is because
gender is so embedded—implicit—that we aren’t aware of noticing it. We just do. Not seeing the forest for the trees. So obvious, it is too
big to see.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">By deploying an inbuilt,
wired tendency to privilege gender as the most important human trait you have
just practiced implicit bias--a universal human</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">behavior.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">As Americans, we want
control over how we live our lives. We think of ourselves first and foremost as individuals – then as members of a family, tribe, or clan.</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> C</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">ontrol over our social and physical
environment is an article of faith for Americans because it serves the ultimate
value of controlling our own destiny. That means the ability to derive reward
and results from our efforts, to stave off disasters, to enjoy good relations
with our support team—family, friends, and colleagues, and avoid people and
situations that signal distrust and suspicion. The collective bargain we make
with ourselves and others rests on a silent but shared agreement.</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;">This agreement takes the form of assumptions
about what is most important to decide and manage, both privately and publicly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">This national goal is
not a random choice. Getting there is calculated to serve what is most
important to us – predispositions to favor one thing or condition over others.
This freedom of choice dictates how character is formed and expressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> At the same time i</span>t is also a source of uncertainty and
anxiety, because we can never measure the “rightness” of the choices we make.
Instead we can only identify mistakes, after they happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But generally, adherence to these values is a
form of virtue signaling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Strangely enough, our
biases play a leading role in making this happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Value bias is</span> simply preferences for one state of affairs over another which denote and direct
decision-making and judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It often
operates in our subconscious, exerting influence under the radar; for example,
why we favor our own group (in-group affiliation) and therefore disfavor groups outside
our kin and ken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Unconscious bias and
implicit bias are two familiar terms for unexamined beliefs and related values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, value bias may be quite intentional, as
directives we consciously work to practice and perpetuate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No human is impartial—machines may be, but we are
95% intuitive, not technical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Positive value bias is the outcome of having a value set and living by it, which is, of
course, the profile of a virtuous person. Value bias also explains the
darker side of the equation, as the actual <i>cause</i> of negative outcomes. These naturally follow from valuing
one preferred state over another. You can’t have positive at both poles. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Bias Pro and Con <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Bias is considered faulty thinking or feeling, a mistaken vector that interferes with good
judgment or fairness to others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Negative
bias is </span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">“noise”</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> (unwanted effects) that is both mistaken and
unwarranted, whether conscious or innate. But positive bias (value-based), a
feature of cultural choosiness, is semi-conscious but fully intentional in its
distinctions and decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The task is
to understand how values act to prime normal thinking and acting to protect and
promote favored outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such positive
bias directs both attitudes and reasoning culture-wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Bias in favor” is both more powerful and pervasive
than negative bias. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We exercise our
preferences in every domain every day, and don’t worry about the nonpreferred rejects, the rest and residue--unless forced on us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Under identity politics,
bias has earned a bad reputation for being intolerant, unfair, and hurtful, as based
on irrational, exaggerated, or prejudicial ideas about the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the positive sense (such as bias toward optimism,
or social justice, or success) is based on virtuous ideals – about positive, aspirational,
hopeful motives to create desirable outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is this higher-minded bias that creates civilizations and cultural
progress. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Bias is simply a
tendency to either favor or disfavor – as the values we hold are tendencies –
toward or away from one state of affairs over another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bias includes conscious, unconscious,
implicit or explicit, favoritism: toward people, places, things, behavior, and ideas,
extending far beyond gender or race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
speaks to class, age, community, and context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is, in the simplest terms, like the values it follows along with: a privileging
of some values above others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simply an assigned preference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No intense hatred or obsessional
paranoia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Ta-Nehisi Coates skillfully noted,
“Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy
toward some and broader skepticism toward others.” (</span><i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">We Were Eight Years in Power: An American
Tragedy, </span></i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;">2017)</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Decision making<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Broad sympathy for one group
over another is more difficult than open antagonism to identify and track, or
to alter. We make comparisons all the
time, of course – the basis for hierarchy, not just for ranking people, but for
taste, cost, quality, and performance in everything from cars, homes, marriage
partners, careers, and college (the leading big-ticket decisions).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These choices all involve bias for as well as
against in any paired comparison of options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We do this sorting, weighting, and ranking across the board constantly
and in all life areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We call this
critical thinking and value-based decision making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The values involved in bias do just that:
position some values (like status) above others (like safety) to serve the
goals of the moment as well as the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These rankings can be assigned numbers to compute scores and determine
relative value. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Being biased is not an
individual failing but a core feature of cultural character as a learned
mindset and emotional approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
constantly in motion in all we do and decide—usually below conscious
awareness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bias can be reframed but
only, again, as learned; if the motivation is consistent with core values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, if a new value fits in with the old.
How do we know some value isn’t right for us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We aren’t sure </span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">– it just feels wrong. </span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">This is a common reaction when visiting other countries, making the
traveler aware that “something just isn’t the same--the basic assumptions.” (All
the way from narrower personal space to line formation, tea types and train
schedules, to honor murders, bride burning, and female genital mutilation.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In fact, culture is the
sum total of “collective biases” over generations that constitutes the shared
ideals and beliefs for people in the past and present—and future. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a broad spectrum of ideals the group
lives by. Why? Because values in common create a problem-solving framework, a mentality operating
as a shared reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reality-by-common-consent
is basic to a sense of coherence, psychological safety, social cohesion between
groups, and the meanings as agreed on about the way the world should work. This
approach yields a basic checklist of central cultural (shared) values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> In a world of diversity, this creates a critical common ground.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Across the span of US
history, the crux of these cultural imperatives is the principle that the individual
(not group, not government, not religion) is the base unit of our culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the moral high ground on which every
other American value rests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Independence—of
thought, speech, act, and association—is central to this belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, to most of the world’s countries, which
are group-based, this is seen as a negative bias against communitarian
values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But wait—the US continues as the
biggest draw, worldwide, to immigration. US cultural gravity portends the emergence
of a US-value-biased global culture now in development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Cultural bias<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">When Americans find
themselves at odds with groups from other cultures, our own value bias is the
baseline we go to instinctively to interpret and judge those outside
cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is cultural bias – it is
not cognitive or rational, but nonanalytic, deep, and emotional, because
value-based and rooted in cultural imperatives, not reasoned understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These other cultures, too, are deep,
emotional, non-rational to their members, who, like us, are simply following
their own “heuristics” (intuitions and mental shortcuts) in making systematically
biased judgments and coming to decisions (Kahneman, 2011). The framework is
cognitive bias.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his follow-on book <i>Noise
</i>(2021), Kahneman defines bias as interfering variability in decision-making
deviating from a known standard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
recommends identifying and reducing bias –for example, delusional optimism – as
chance variability which exacts an ”invisible tax” on outcomes in business,
government, and beyond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But more widely,
bias can be thought about, in the Adam Smith sense of the free market, as the
invisible hand behind decision making. To complement cognitive bias, value bias fills in at the intuitive extreme, the counterpart of our rational side.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">So value bias can open inquiry along related lines:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
is the role of culture in thinking, acting, category-making, and decision making,
focusing on the key values involved, and by using the methodology of positive
bias to see how these come into play?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What are the net effects, and what can they tell us about the way positively
biased thinking determines behavior?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
do the answers point to solutions to problems and projects in cultural
intelligence, including diversity, equity, inclusion, cultural conflict—and
beyond, in the art of cultural competence?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10.5pt;"><b>Image: </b>Sign artifact from Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA</span></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-39397771490430181202022-07-28T13:07:00.000-07:002022-07-28T13:07:31.394-07:00Narcissism – The Extreme Ego<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCC-wQJMUyZYpPak6xG0cVQyO9TDc0uJJslHR21HNM2J5kqXdMsN-5cn0aUW15IT9UVONJkzE6EbP69k-Cfn_04-w4DXRTCW_63urirl-izpnLufiIlJWhWfadMrGRT6wp3XkXvdqmKcc07hOvoqH0OgBihB1Ob_BYyAPNExs0OlmNqDUkACdbnf3S" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2454" data-original-width="2024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCC-wQJMUyZYpPak6xG0cVQyO9TDc0uJJslHR21HNM2J5kqXdMsN-5cn0aUW15IT9UVONJkzE6EbP69k-Cfn_04-w4DXRTCW_63urirl-izpnLufiIlJWhWfadMrGRT6wp3XkXvdqmKcc07hOvoqH0OgBihB1Ob_BYyAPNExs0OlmNqDUkACdbnf3S" width="198" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Narcissus, b</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">y Caravaggio *</span></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“The main condition for the achievement of love
is the overcoming of one's narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in
which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the
phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are
experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one.
The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other
people and things </span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">as they are</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, objectively, and to be able to
separate this </span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">objective</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> picture from a picture which is
formed by one's desires and fears.” </span><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">― </strong><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Erich Fromm</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Homo
sapiens</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
is a highly sociable species, matched only by baboon society. This requires an act of ego management, balancing
our individuality against our equally important needs for other people—their
knowledge, skills, attention, and cooperation (see “The Social Paradox,”
June 2022 blog). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Human
life is an ego-driven endeavor.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">But it is an
equally cooperative venture, with reciprocity at its core. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is the grand paradox of the human
mind—it is exquisitely tuned into itself, while at the same time, occupied with
understanding the minds of others. But at the extreme opposite end of the
balance board is the narcissist, named after the figure in Greek mythology who
fell in love with his own reflection.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Narcissistic
Personality Disorder (NPD) became a personality disorder (in the diagnostic directory
DSM-5) starting in 2013. Estimates are this describes one percent of the US
population.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">However, the other 99% struggle with the symptoms and proclivities of the disorder. Most of us can build the
bridges needed between ourselves and the reality of other people.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Those who cannot do this risk crossing over into sociopathology,
with its inability to recognize and empathize, and feel the effects of guilt, pain,
and remorse when actions and intentions harm others.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is the dark danger zone of being human without
a conscience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
basic divide between NPD subjects and the rest of us is social intelligence –
containing the ego just enough so that it doesn’t transform into
sociopathy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many successful leaders have
the disorder.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We stand back and let them
operate by the rule of ego – it simply isn’t worth our own standing and
reputation to oppose their willfulness.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Famous narcissists fill the history books and
current news – Nero, Napoleon, Hitler, Trump, Mao, Mussolini.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Narcissism involves manipulation to control
others without taking responsibility for outcomes (and so lack of deep
relationships), projecting blame onto the world while denying any defects and
believing oneself to be high-achieving and super-intelligent in a lived-out
fantasy of grandiosity and invincibility.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Facts are no barrier when reality can be overcome by the forces of personality and self-promotion. Lying, justifying, and promising unrealistically are common activities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b> Beliefs
and behaviors:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Delusions of grandeur,
with fixations about personal power, intelligence, and attractiveness.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">These delusions are taken as reality, with
real or imagined associations with status and others with status, requires continual
admiration and attention. Expectations of special treatment and
subservience, most often achieved through manipulation and exploitation.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Unable or unwilling to empathize with others,
without guilt or conscience.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Envy of others’ status and
achievements.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Degges-White, </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Psychology
Today</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 10/25/21)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Causes:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Either
childhood abuse or pampering; idealization about abilities and potential by
parents; unrealistic expectations for achievement; protection from normal
consequences of bad behavior (the “free pass”), creating an attitude of
entitlement and special treatment.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Treatment
/ therapy:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Giving
them the attention they crave and “deserve” doesn’t work--only feeding their
appetite and adding to the black hole that is their need for admiring attention.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is no tolerance of criticism (including
therapeutic inquiry) and no way to let go of the toxic premise driving the disorder. Indeed, sufferers are by definition unable to conceive of
themselves as needing help--except to get whatever they want. “A terrible prognosis,” as one psychiatrist put it,
is the result of resistance to change because the NPD self-image is an
immovable concept.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Those surrounding the
subject—recipients of their abuse--are most often the ones who need and can respond
to therapy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Self-Defense:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">For
the rest of us, a narcissistic lifestyle alienates everyone, driving family,
friends, and employees away because of the stress and time / effort demands of
the forced attention and adulation. The only therapy for those who can’t
avoid contact is self-protection. This consists of setting boundaries, with
clear expectations of respect and care for others.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Resistance is futile;
fighting and arguing simply reinforce that the person is “right”-- therefore
you cannot be. All</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">this takes
calculation and energy, with its draining effects of stress, uncertainty, and continuing conflict.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Because
the nature of narcissism is that its sufferers aren’t self-aware about their
condition, in its pure states, this a mental health disorder without a cure.
All they know is that they want and deserve to be unconditionally admired and
catered to. This is the universe built around a serious personality
malfunction. Which doesn’t serve them well unless they are the
ultra-alpha leader (like Putin and Trump) who never has to admit they are not
the top dog—because they are, and in a position to prove it. Nothing
really disturbs their self-image, which means they can afford, as a
psychological reality, to live the NPD life. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">*<i>Narcissus</i> (1597-99),</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Caravaggio - The
Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by
DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain</span></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-49241839425861368072022-06-20T13:01:00.001-07:002022-06-20T13:18:40.667-07:00The Social Paradox<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhuY5_0ZPYgh-8rkhMO4IUob8GdMWJS34NTdvSdvO7DvvIXDn4ugdSdWE4sh_eRnXeIWTyQIdsjHGcCIYEjuuCiqC6r2rn2oyjXMNDF3S4lxxx00URY-5xCNm8-ADpcl-Fpb9kV7UMRBeMWSnBt5hN95_-UMfUyWS91QAT0buZVw87ssFQ8DsGtosss" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhuY5_0ZPYgh-8rkhMO4IUob8GdMWJS34NTdvSdvO7DvvIXDn4ugdSdWE4sh_eRnXeIWTyQIdsjHGcCIYEjuuCiqC6r2rn2oyjXMNDF3S4lxxx00URY-5xCNm8-ADpcl-Fpb9kV7UMRBeMWSnBt5hN95_-UMfUyWS91QAT0buZVw87ssFQ8DsGtosss" width="320" /></a></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;">Image by Pexels from Pixabay</span></span></span></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“Man is a social animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He who lives without society is either a
beast or God.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> – Aristotle<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Part I</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What do we spend most of our time background-thinking
about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of this rumination has to do
with our social ties: where they are, where they are going, what could go right
with them, what could go wrong—the source of much anxiety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of our important conflicts are between
family members, because the stakes in close relationships are the highest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people closest to us are the main source
of help and support—the source of the traditional family business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Altruism starts at home and largely locates
there for the human lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Social rumination is all part of our intensely social nature
as apex primates. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human nature has two
faces, and they seem opposed in a paradox: while we are intensely social, we
are also intensely territorial, and spend time thinking about where our
boundaries are (our reputations, our holdings, and wealth both material and
social) as well as how well those boundaries are working—or being
challenged--in the social realm (see “Territory” blog, February 27, 2022).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a consummate review of territoriality,
see Simon Winchester’s <u>Land: How the hunger for ownership shaped the modern
world</u>, (2021).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why are primates such social creatures?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the leading inquiry among
primatologists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we operate as
social beings, going beyond our individual boundaries to create, manage, and
transfer thinking and behaviors across generations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ever since researchers sequenced the chimp
genome in 2005, they’ve recognized that people share about 99% of our DNA with
chimpanzees, making them our closest residing relatives. This raises the
question of what chimp behavior have to say about ours? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Animal researcher Edward O. Wilson sees social behavior, the
product of evolution—sociobiology, as the best collective adaptation for
survival and reproduction for the group. As an old saying goes, “One monkey is
no monkey.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paleoanthropologist Daniel
Lieberman identifies our intense social nature to be the root of our
uniqueness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Humans are intensely social
creatures, and more than any other species, we cooperate with unrelated
strangers…. As a result, we have been elected to enjoy doing activities in
groups, to assist one another, and to care what others think of us” (<u>Exercised</u>,
2020).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">Viewing human life and goals as a
system of organized thought and decision-making opens new lines of observation
and experimentation beyond but including individual biology, brain, and
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key to culture is its
uncanny ability to balance major forces like self-centered instincts with our
ability to socialize with people outside the family bond: in religion, cities,
professions, sports, government, the military, as well as across generations
and clan relatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">Complex social organizations, as
well as language, make every social level and effort a set of rules and skills
that contain power and leverage influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They enforce the rights and reputation of individuals who worry about
losing social footing and rank in any given group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our constant rumination about our place in
the hierarchy mediates between building status in our competitive careers and
holding on to our place in the many lines we maintain throughout a
lifetime—while being generally cooperative and open to new alliances.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;"><b>Part II</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">The individual personal space, and
the many social spaces we inhabit in the course of living, do have something in
common with fierce territorial impulses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The paradox in this duality is that in order to be properly socialized,
the first step is to be in control: the neocortex--upper brain--and its
executive centers must be developed and in control in all social
encounters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This involves hundreds of
limits we unconsciously observe even in the briefest of encounters. In other
words, in order to be a social creature, you must have territorial
awareness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">What does this awareness
entail?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First of all: boundaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowledge and respect for personal space, our
core territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are supremely
sensitive to spatial invasion by other people, so that every social encounter
must abide by the spatial separation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Break
this rule, and it’s over. Focus on the other speaker – eye contact, body
language literacy, appropriate signals that show understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language compatibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emotional focus and response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Appropriate content—information revealed and
hidden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Voice register, pacing, tone,
and allowing for alternative speaking. In other words, quickly changing awareness
of person, place, purpose, and proceeding in any situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language level, status and role, age, class,
and gender markers all operate within the context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s much for the mind and the emotions to
handle, besides the conscious awareness of past, present, and future
repercussions of whatever is said and replied to.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">The ability to understand “theory
of mind” – knowing how others think, feel, and act, and the rules of
engagement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This covers not just basic
manners (knowing if and when to speak, how to ask questions and offer
information), but how and when to reveal personal information, and what
specific contexts require or prohibit revelations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The life-long learning that humans undertake
is largely about how to start and maintain good relationships, how to note and repair
damage to them, how to connect others in our lives (or keep them apart), and
discover our unique talents in conversation, presentation, leader- or
follower-ship, as well as what situations and people we are better keeping away
from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">All these skills must be
constantly honed and refined, shifting with thousands of situations, some
familiar, many unknown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a
genius-level undertaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet all of us do
it every day--with astounding virtuosity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And how is this all learned?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Through experience, not so much through tutoring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a high-stakes court testimony to a
casual hello in the company hallway, we learn mastery, and creative, unique
responses, to whatever emerges next—whether in person, on the phone, or in
writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">Although we are intensely
sociable, we save this intensity for a defined circle (see Altruism blog, May
30).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are particular about who we
spend our time with—and that time is increasingly shrinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The notable fact of human life is that we are
highly social—only baboons approach our level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the same time, though, we are also highly territorial about how we
mix with others on a regular basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
short list of our most favored contacts over time makes up the inner circle
that revolves around the center---yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This circle includes immediate family, close friends, close colleagues, religious
and association co-members, neighbors geographically close, and
friends-of-friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are acutely aware
of this list, as well as who else is around us and how aggressive they
are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why our limited time is
also spent in avoiding or placating those unfavored many who would like to join
our list but who we determine are simply not worthy of protracted time and
attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, each of us is also
on the “do-not-admit” lists of many people we aspire to be closer to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;">Technology is now taking over
times and places of the more expensive in-person events everyone cherishes but
few have the time budget for anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With the number of distractions now available plus the constant phone
and computer streams, we have a wider circle but shallower connections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of play dates, breakfast meetings, and
zoom conferences, and the infamous low social skills of Millenials and Gen
Z.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are reasons we have become even
more picky about who we let into our inner circle and the time budget for each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like all human activities, our social lives
are on an agenda limited by time, travel, work, leisure, and every other demand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Covid has reinforced these limits so as to
make them more acceptable as a ticket to opt-out.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Image by Pexels from Pixabay<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 193.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7199265157851058301.post-20324548627105480342022-05-27T12:35:00.001-07:002022-05-27T12:35:59.699-07:00Altruism: Charity begins at home<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiI3N-rnKx4Uy7-urmcYTQwii5X3Gj8obXo9r0RusnF4xQs5wbSM2Jtdy63LI22epbaYzpFIA0aPpCgPuS0q0Imk5YWvQgS5AgiI38czgYtZ25Uk1MOdOJFGMt7Qjy2yBvtWPPY0xqD-Cf-H8dOrbaAoleyg8lFpXXIUbHWezyNqFEiZnJ4DS5iar_J" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1300" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiI3N-rnKx4Uy7-urmcYTQwii5X3Gj8obXo9r0RusnF4xQs5wbSM2Jtdy63LI22epbaYzpFIA0aPpCgPuS0q0Imk5YWvQgS5AgiI38czgYtZ25Uk1MOdOJFGMt7Qjy2yBvtWPPY0xqD-Cf-H8dOrbaAoleyg8lFpXXIUbHWezyNqFEiZnJ4DS5iar_J" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">“Natural selection is
conventionally assumed to favor the strong and selfish who maximize their own
utility function.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But human societies
(hopefully) are organized on altruistic, cooperative interactions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--
Peter Erdi, <u>Ranking: The unwritten rules of the social game we all play</u>
(2020)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The cooperation of naturally selfish people is a form of
indirect reciprocity, the process of banking social credits in an investment
fund that will eventually build to pay off for favors paid to others in
present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a lifetime campaign of
building a reputation for helpfulness, helping to build a reputation for
altruism that will raise the chances of receiving help for oneself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether this help comes from those you help
directly, or from their relations, friends, and allies, doesn’t matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Reputation helps trust to emerge among
people” (Erdi, p. 163).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Acts of backing
other people in their efforts are often public, not isolated but visible to the
wider group, either as gossip, news, or legend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps the most famous act in the Western civilization is
the crucifixion of Christ, with the enormous payoff of saving every soul that
ever existed—with the proviso of having to acknowledge this sacrifice in order
to benefit from it. At the other end of the scale is the mother-child dyad (the
core concept of the cult worship of Mary).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This form of altruism drives our history generation by generation; life
without it would not be possible. The largest unpaid labor pool in the world is
that of child and home caretaking ($10.9 trillion worldwide, minimum wage, Oxfam
estimate 2018). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add to this the assessment
of the emotional labor involved—the management of social relations in family
groups nearly always performed largely by women and more difficult to price on
the market.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We are constantly operating across the lines of the personal
and private--think of the way language works for us—the basis of culture, our
shared “reality by common consent.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Altruism, investing in others in the long-term for mutual benefit, but
at a loss in the present—is seen as uniquely human beyond the parent-child
instinct, and one of our finest impulses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fossil remains focus scientists on the individual, but don’t reveal the
story of our interactive character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
social history is based on the robust ability evolved to relate to each other’s
needs in order to build the social structures that make us human in the same
way walking upright does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of this
social structure is hierarchy; the ranking system that drives the way we are
regarded and how that regard drives our opportunities and decision making. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currently, in a move to install diversity
policies in the workplace and professional groups, “allyship” has become a way
for senior workers to share the value of their own reputations by promoting
diversity candidates for hiring and moving up in the organization. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is the realm of reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politicians, governments, countries,
nonprofits, academics, scientists openly compete against each other for
reputation points; it is the basis of brand identity as tied to quality and
values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also serves to promote altruistic
behavior, or at least its appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Researcher Jane Goodall was first to observe chimpanzees in
the wild for as long or in as much detail to discover that her subjects were
tool-users, that they were not vegetarians but omnivores, and that they
cultivated learned practices like cracking nuts with stones and twig-probing
for insects, even making stone tools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
that they hunt, as an organized campaign, feasting on other animals, including other
primates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These primate behaviors seem to verge on culture as learned
behavior from individual to individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the case of organized hunting, for humans, this practice began to differentiate
by gender, age, and ability, as forays away from home and children began to
reinforce the roles of hunter-away and caregiver/nurturer-at-home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two roles are complementary, and of
course, therefore different and contrasting if not conflicting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Male and female roles each have aspects that
cost the individual energy and freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But group survival and gains in well-being (health and longevity) benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an example of using what makes us
different as a type of capital that only certain social roles are able to
access and apply. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worth, competence, and
influence—in one’s special role--are forms of capital to be allocated to
various campaigns in which our group specialization can mobilize a move up the
ladder of reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not need to
be martyrs to do this, but this is the symbol that comes to mind for extreme
cases of social sacrifice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Behavior aimed at helping others seemingly disadvantages the
altruist while advantaging the recipient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But altruism can also be considered a form of long-term alliance we
knowingly invest in, knowing the rewards take time to develop or be
reciprocated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prolonged childhood
caregiving is required to raise babies to adult social maturity, at age 18,
compared to gorillas at age 10 and monkeys at 8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This long primate socialization time is the
outcome of just how much needs to be learned across a great many situations,
and the volume of applied knowledge is largest in humans. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Apart from occasional acts of assistance to strangers and
periodic aid to friends, intensive altruism is directed primarily at relatives,
which is the reason kinship has always been so critical first, to determine,
and then to nurture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to evolutionary
biologist William Hamilton, the social evolutionary benefits of altruism
outweigh the costs to individuals, increasing the fitness of their own genes by
supporting the welfare of close relatives, and forming the “selfish” genetic
base of altruism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The math works like
this: “[By genotype] we expect to find that no one is prepared to sacrifice his
life for any single person, but that everyone will sacrifice it when he can
thereby save more than 2 brothers, or 4 half-brothers, or 8 first cousins.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Especially for baboons, macaques, and chimps (and humans),
who live in “natal” groups, the group they were born into.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Defense and aggression for all these species
form around the idea of cooperative defense of territory, the home base and the
close relatives who make up our core community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Note how often the home base for seniors gets determined simply by
where grandchildren live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the
leading reason for grandparents’ relocating.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now long-term care of parents and other relatives is raising the cost
and duration of altruism beyond historical limits—another legion of unpaid
caregivers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Certain groups are so socially attuned and cohesive, for
example Japanese, that the US government deemed this cohesion a threat to
national security during the Second World War, leading to detention Executive
Order 9066 in 1942.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their accusers pronounced
this ethnic minority one of “extraordinary cooperation and solidarity.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social identity rules, which include
altruistic value promotion, operate to reduce conflict as well as uncertainty within
the group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they also work to define
the group against every other, which is the platform of identity politics based
on values, lifestyle, and their partisan battles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Margaret J.King,Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00669400623503711223noreply@blogger.com0