science informs our prayers of confession. Whether it is our selfish nature that compels us to prioritize ourselves and our families, or the study of various neuroses, or understanding how our emotions get the best of us, science has a lot to say about sin.
Cognitive bias—a topic we have addressed previously—is a significant factor in racism. We are usually unaware of these biases and therefore they can be particularly pernicious. Read a summary of implicit bias here, including one study that gives insight into police shootings.
Can our senses be trusted? “Scientists are working to understand the nature of subjective experience and whether or not expectation or motivation might actually result in different representations of sensory information in our brains.”
You largely trust your own mind, right? It is a source of reliable knowledge, except, maybe for those moments you can’t remember where you left your keys. Well, psychology tells a very different story. There are dozens of biases that impact how reasonably, or accurately, or unselfishly our minds function.