How can we avoid reinforcing our biases by discussing delicate issues with others who have similar biases?

Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if you have a tendency to consult people who are in a similar kind of thought. Now, there can be people who are in similar kinds of thought, who are judgmental about others. And there are people in similar kind of thoughts who are understanding about others.
So basically, see, I am at this level, if you consider I’m climbing up a mountain, I’m at this level, I can see things from here. Now somebody else has taken the same path to climb up the mountain, but they have a higher vantage point. So they can see where I am.
And they can see where somebody else is also, they can see, but they know what path I am traversing. But they also know what path somebody else is traversing. So if we go to people who are like minded, but who are judgmental of others, then we will just feel this person is a curse.
We will just it is what is it called? It’s self-reinforcing bias. In psychology, it is called that. We meet with people who simply share our opinions.
Like, you know, there are Jihadis. They say, Americans are bad, Hindus are bad. And one Jihadi meets another Jihadi, third Jihadi, fourth Jihadi.
They all say, Oh, Hindus are bad. It’s self-reinforcing bias. Shana Krishnapur is the president of, is the founder of Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
So he told me that once he had got a, he was trying to, in Ireland he was preaching and we had got a very bad reputation as a cult. So he decided to counter that reputation and he got some Christian professor and he arranged some programs for the professor in his city, in the college. And basically there was some interfaith dialogue.
So that Christian professor stayed in the temple for about a week and went for various programs. And then after that, when he was leaving, he asked him, you know, how was your experience? So that professor told him, it was very challenging. He said, what do you mean challenging? He said that, you know, I grew up believing that Jesus is the only way to Krishna, Jesus is the only way to God.
And every day I would come here in the mornings and I could clearly see the devotion which you people have. So it was very challenging for my faith to see your devotion. So he was actually very honest in admitting that.
The point is that, that if we just keep meeting people who not only share our views, but also judgmental about others, then it makes us more close-minded. But if we, we need some senior devotees who, who understand us and who also understand the other person, then it won’t be a self-reinforcing bias. It will be more like a perception-expanding discussion.
So that way we can, we can enhance our understanding. This is not to say that everything that everyone is doing is always right. There can be things that are wrong also.
But to understand something, we can’t just go to someone who holds our own, who more or less holds our opinions. Then it’s not of much use. Does that answer your question?