Question

The social error/bias "one of us/" one of them" how are we affected by this and how can we overcome it

Answer 1

All of us at some point in life are confronted with a bias of "One of us/ one of them". This bias happens due to various social, economic and cultural differences between people. We may consider people who belong to our religion, income level or even country as our own.

This creates a social bias and it often affects how we treat and react in various situations. For example, if a car bumps mine in a minor way, I would be more friendly towards the other driver if he is belonging to my country or community.

While there is nothing wrong with being nice, it creates problems when we respond in a negative way towards whom we consider "others". Therefore, a deeper study of the effects of social bias is the need of the hour.

However, personally we can try to reduce our social bias. To do this, we have to stop categorizing people into religion, race, class and stop finding similarities with some of them and dissimilarities with others. When we think about it, the basic needs of all humans are the same. Therefore, instead of being nice to people with whom we ave affinity and vice versa, we can try to overlook the differences and try to find the similar threads of needs/requirements of the people around us. From basic security like food, shelter, clothing to emotional needs of receiving love, appreciation, acknowledgment, respect, all of us are created in the same manner and require the same things from life.

This innate understanding will help in reducing the social bias which has developed over years due to social conditioning and will help in creating a just, equal and fair world.