Counter-Bias Training

We are the sum of our experiences. Experiences gained through a lifetime of lessons learnt from various stimuli given to us by the environment within which we are raised. Of course there are some influential aspects that can shape that environment, such as the multitude of social media that has become integral to our everyday lives in this day and age of instant access to information and all that, but ultimately it all comes down to those experiences and how we take them in. How they shape us.

In a recent article I came across I learnt of an interesting study that attempted to erase gender and racial bias during sleep by using a ‘sleep teaching’ technique. A technique that could be referred to as ‘counter-bias training’ as it uses two distinct sounds to represent the two group biases. 

It’s interesting, that someone has finally gone and found something like this, a possible solution to help a society that has become too narrow-minded in its thinking. Yet, even as I think this I can’t help but question the fact that this is still messing with people’s brains. I highly doubt that everybody will be okay with that. 

Still, wouldn’t it be worth the risk- the chance to correct a lifetime of bias that has been unknowingly imposed upon you, by a society that prefers oranges to apples simply because it likes the smell better? I don’t know that sounds pretty tempting to me to be honest and let’s be honest we all have those biases in some form or another whether we know it or not.

We live in a world where we can’t help but be affected by the society we live in because, quite frankly, the society won’t let us live without acknowledging its existence. Like a starved artist, it must make its mark on us while it carves out bits of what will one day be our history. Wouldn’t it be awesome if that history could be changed by a few simple sounds heard while you were sleeping? 

I think it all sounds a bit too good to be true. But that’s probably the pessimist in me talking. The realist wants to give the scientist some time to figure out how far they could take this study, while also giving society a chance to take a long look at the fact that if all it takes is a few sounds to change your way of thinking, why can’t we all just get along?