Understanding the roots of Prejudice: Biocognitive Peace Education

Abstract

When we hear or read something shocking, do we protect ourselves by not looking or hearing, or do we decide we need to learn something that could be helpful to us by watching, listening and talking? It can be difficult to decide whether we want to protect ourselves from a situation, or learn from it. Dr. Terrence Webster-Doyle said, “Learning about prejudice requires a mind that looks without judgement at root causes of it. Once we know how prejudice happens, we can prevent it.” This presentation helps audiences to understand “conditioned thinking” as a cause of prejudice in the form of a mechanical difficulty in the brain. This situation programs us to act in hurtful ways that create conflict. This kind of mechanical thinking leads towards thinking that “the only way to resolve any conflict is a fight.” These days there are many news reports about clashes between states, cultures, races and religions – so many that it’s difficult to pay attention to them all. Prejudice is dominant in making such clashes. Prejudice is judging before we have all the right information- and is usually based on believing that a person or group is “different” from us; or “they are threatening our survival”. Prejudice hurts not only the person bullied, but also the bully. And such acts come from acting before thinking. In bio-cognitive peace education, human can learn to question everything they see and hear – asking who, what, where, how, and why leads them to facts rather than opinions. Conflict happens every day. If we become able to remove the mask of opinions or judgments and see clearly the facts, many conflict can be solved before it starts.