Check Yourself - Biology Bias

This morning I read an interesting article at Postmasculine. Postmasculine is worthy of your frequent perusal, as the subject matter is typically very progressive and thoughtful. The entry I read in particular was The Biology Bias. I strongly recommend you read it.

The biology bias is a theory and it resonates with anyone who has at least a moderate level of honesty with themselves. Only two people could possibly not identify with the biology bias: a perfect person, or a person in deep denial about their thoughts and actions.

The biology bias basically states that we overstate the negative actions of others while downplaying our own. As an example: you are in the restroom and you see someone exit before washing their hands. Typically a feeling of disdain comes to us, even if ever so brief. However, if you were to exit the bathroom before washing your hands, you would likely already have various defensible explanations to pardon your behavior: "I am in a hurry." or "I didn't pee on my hands." or something of the like.

The biology bias also works the other way, by amplifying our own positive actions while downplaying if not ignoring the positive contributions of others. Example: if your favorite sports team won, they did so by virtue of being the better team, and playing harder. If the other team wins, they were lucky and didn't deserve it.

Or as an example, the image below:

The Postmasculine article goes further. It eventually delves into nature versus nurture, and addresses the angst men and women subject one another to and have since apparently the beginning of time.

  Take refuge in knowing everyone is guilty of this. However, be aware that you can modify your thoughts which then modifies your behavior. With mindfulness, maintaining presence, and an ego-destroying amount of honesty applied to yourself, you can get better of avoiding the pitfalls of the biology bias.

Hat tip to Rob Pugh at Relaxed Focus for this linking to the biology bias article as well as many other interesting articles over time.

And an update on my entry from two days ago about lucid dreaming with the FILD technique. It worked surprisingly well and on the first try. I basically dreamt that I woke from sleep, went outside of my armored compound where my car awaited me. I drove away from Iraq to a fantasy theme park where whatever I imagined came to be. I eventually jumped off a cliff and plummeted into a post-apocalyptic world that needed saving. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about it when I woke up. Of note: while I didn't craft every aspect of the changing environments in my dream, I did dictate my every action. 

Will update later with lifting stuff.