Rationality, bias, and prejudice: developing citizens’ ability to engage in inquiry

Abstract

Bias and prejudice are well known aspects of all societies and political arenas. They motivate a wide variety of fear-mongering policies and seem to be deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of people, interfering with their reasoning and better judgement. In this paper, I explore how bias and prejudice come about and how they can be put to more productive use in a democratic context.

Humans aren’t as rational as we might expect. We often fail to think logically and applying abstract reasoning is a challenge. When concepts are difficult for us to grasp, we often use our pre-existing ideas and experiences. Our biases and pre-conceived notions allow us to make better sense of complex problems. Bias is unavoidable. If we accept that we have pre-existing beliefs and can identify them accurately, they can serve an epistemic purpose in deliberation.

We can use bias and prejudice as the starting point for meaningful inquiry as well as critical self-reflection. In order to accomplish this we need to place a greater educational focus on critical thinking skills. This type of education develops both our specific skills for analysis, evaluation and problem solving, but also builds the essential dispositions for open-mindedness and tolerance that are essential for effective deliberation.

Keywords:

• Vice epistemology
• democracy
• prejudice
• bias
• habit of mind
• critical thinking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Critical Thinking Project at the University of Queensland.

Notes on contributors

Luke Zaphir

Luke teaches philosophy at the University of Queensland and design the curriculum for Critical Thinking for Education Queensland's IMPACT Centre. His research examines the intersection of a number of topics, including education philosophy, contemporary pedagogy, and democratic theory. He has a particular interest in citizenship education and non-electoral models of democracy. His current projects examine how critical thinking affects the development of citizenship in both children and adults. He was awarded a doctorate in philosophy in 2017 and joined the University of Queensland’s Critical Thinking Project as a researcher associate in 2018.