Bias: Who Is Deceiving Who? Tough Things First podcast

Content provided by Ray Zinn. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Ray Zinn or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Tough Things First »
Bias: Who is Deceiving Who?

6d ago 9:46

MP3•Episode home

Now more than ever, we are all forced to question what we see and hear, but where our own biases are involved we usually don’t. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn discusses the imperative of recognizing how easily we are duped by ourselves.

Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, I was reading Zen of Zinn 3. On page 244, you wrote about how we live in a time of so much information at our fingertips that it makes it harder for others to deceive us. It means, in other words, there’s so much information out there that anybody who’s trying to lie to us is going to have a harder time lying to us. But you also say, “That depends on whether or not we take the responsibility to check or verify the source of the information so we could get information that is intended to deceive us. And if we’re lax about taking that responsibility, then we just assume that what they’re saying is true.”

You also write that, “Our own personal bias can and will influence our beliefs, that we become our own deceivers if we don’t look at all sides of the issue.” This is a tough time right now. I mean, we’re learning as we go, how to discern what’s real and what’s fake.

Ray Zinn: Well, we’re back to that Trust But Verify podcast that we did.

Rob Artigo: Yeah.

Ray Zinn: This is going to be almost a repeat of that podcast. It’s just that the purpose of this podcast is to verify your source. So, we’re not trusting, in this case, we’re not trusting that the source is correct because we are assuming it’s not correct and we’re going to go verify it. Almost going to prove that it’s wrong because we want to prove it it’s wrong, because we don’t want to believe, we say believe our eyes or our hearing. We tend to deceive ourselves, and the media tends to play to an audience that agrees with who they are, what they are. So, if you wanted to make money or if you wanted to maximize your social media, you’re going to play to your audience that agrees with you. That’s the unfortunate thing. They have so many ways now of deceiving us, faking documents, auto-penning. There’s so many sources now where we can cheat.

By the way, this is nothing new. This has gone on since Adam and Eve, with the devil’s deceiving of Eve. We need to verify our sources. This is nothing to do with trust. We’re not saying we’re going to trust them. We’re going to verify that our source is correct. You have to recognize your bias, individual bias, or you’re not going to be able to validate it, because if you’re going to validate it with your bias, there’s no need to validate it. If you’re just going to believe whatever comes across the wire as they say, if you’re going to believe it, then there’s no validation involved because you’re going to accept whatever comes across that you agree with. So, just be aware. In fact, that’s the biggest issue in this day and age as you would, is to make sure that your bias is not affecting your belief system.

Rob Artigo: It’s tough because one of the things we talked about before starting the podcast was about these pictures that are out there. They are created by AI and they can be a person, a famous person or a politician, and they’re in a situation or dressed a certain way they wouldn’t otherwise dress, and either it’s a satire or something, but people can be easily fooled by these pictures now that are AI generated because they look so authentic. If you’re a person who takes something that you see right away and go, “Oh, I believe that,” and then you switch on to something else, now it’s stuck in your head that that person was doing something.

I mean, one of the things that comes up obviously is, that they’re concerned about is that kids are using this technology to create images of other students where they’re in compromising positions or not wearing clothes or something, and they’re not real pictures, but they’re embarrassing and they’re troubling for the other students or used for bullying. So, it’s a treacherous landscape out there.

Ray Zinn: Well, it’s nothing new, Rob. I mean, as I said, this has gone, this just goes back to Adam and Eve, so being deceived by Saint or by Lucifer. So, deceiving has been with us since the beginning. And so, it’s not just AI, it’s not just a thing that’s a recent concept. We as individuals are becoming smarter and more able to not be deceived, and that’s why they keep coming up with these newer and newer technologies because we are getting smarter and they have to work harder at deceiving. Look at it for the next 100 years, and all you’re going to see is just we’re going to become smarter and less deceivable as you would, and they’ll just keep finding ways to deceive us.

This whole thing about American Greed, which is a TV reenactment program, people have been deceived in many, many different ways over time. We know we have problems with certain universities where the bias of the school tends to teach in accordance with their bias, and the students tend to go to those schools because they agree with their bias. If your bias is in a particular way, you’re going to believe it, whether or not it’s real or not. We have to be masters of our own bias and recognize that we have biases. All of us have biases. And we need to, if we’re not going to be deceived, we have to. Again, examine our bias. I think that’s the important thing that we’re talking about in this particular podcast.

Rob Artigo: And I think one of the problems that comes up is that a person that you trust and like and appreciate their opinions and ideas comes up to you and tells you something, and that piece of information may have come from an unvetted source, so they were deceived. And then when they tell you, you assume that what they’re telling you is true, then now you’re deceived because of their error. And unfortunately, that’s a fact we have to be aware of. I mean, you can ask in a conversation, “Why not follow up with, where’d you hear that? I mean, what was the source of that?” “Well, I saw it on X.” Well, okay, well, that’s not telling me anything.

Ray Zinn: Well, again, the purpose of this podcast is for us to be, if we’re not going to be deceived, we have to examine our own bias. And so, if you question your bias, you will be less deceived. The people on American Greed, again, those reenactments, those people almost asked to be deceived. I mean, they want to make money quick and easy and, oh, here’s a saying that Judge Judy says, “If something’s too good to be true, it probably is.” Or you can tell a person’s lying if their mouth is moving.

So, you got to examine your bias. If there’s something you believe, then you’re more likely to get a deceived. It’s all about where you’re coming from. If it’s something that you agree with, then be careful because you could be deceived if that person uses that bias of yours against you, and whether it be pictures that AI generated pictures that make it look like you or someone else, if that’s what your propensity is to believe that, then you’re going to be deceived. I’m not saying you have to question everything, but you have to question a lot of things, especially if it goes against or goes with your bias.

Rob Artigo: Well, listeners can join the conversation at ToughThingsFirst.com. Questions and comments are always welcome. Follow Ray on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and of course, pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First. And as of now, you can pick up the The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray.

Ray Zinn: Yeah, don’t forget about the Zen of Zinn.

Rob Artigo: Oh yeah. Zen of Zinn 1, 2 and 3, the series.

Ray Zinn: Yeah. We have another one coming out here shortly, too. Bedside version of Zen of Zinn. So, anyway.

Rob Artigo: The listeners are going to love it. Thanks.

Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.

89 episodes

#Marketing #Ray Zinn #Business #Entrepreneur