In this audio interview at Pale Blue Dot, we discuss the title topic of this blog, how to overcome bias. I’m less optimistic about personal checklists of biases to avoid, and more optimistic about track records and other ways to change your incentives. Unfortunately, we talked over the phone, so my voice sound is low quality. But if you can get past that, the topics are interesting.
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I have worked in international broadcasting, especially looking at the problem of hate speech in regions of Asia and Africa. I note that it is Western European broadcasters that keep pushing the word 'unbiased', yet everything they do is based on their own perspective on the issues, as well as their values and norms. To tell the complete story, without any bias, would probably take too long and end up being intensely boring. Instead, we assumed the material we broadcast would have an inevitable bias, but opened the topic up for discussion afterwards. Our role was to be a catalyst for conversation, with the premise that isolated communities are the most vulnerable to radicalisation by extremist views.
I hope you get another chance to do a presentation in a studio somewhere or in front of a webcam. The mobile phone filters all form of emotion out of your voice and that makes it more difficult to follow your train of thought. But carry on the great narrative.
Practical society is much can't solve the problem, but the continuous progress of science，scientific procedures have certainly helped us overcome many common biases. Still lots of room for improvement, but it’s been a spectacular success so far, no? (at least compared to making no such attempt.