As we get ready to elect the first black president, the oldest first-term president, or the first woman president - I can't help but think of the biases we all have and how they will affect our votes. 

Some people qualify as outright bigots, like this woman from Indiana. Others are what I like to call "internal bigots." These people have ignorant, intolerant, and prejudiced views, but hide these feelings when it comes to speaking in public, responding to surveys, etc. While these people are sometimes difficult to identify as individuals, the candidates are well aware of their prejudices and do whatever it takes to overcome them. (e.g., Obama bowled, Hillary took a shot of whiskey, and McCain said Heidi from the Hills was a talented actress)

This article by Siri Carpenter describes the implicit biases we all have. No matter how hard we try to judge each situation independently, we simply can't do it. In fact, we wouldn't want to in many situations. An excerpt:

Because closely associated concepts are essentially linked together in a person’s mind, a person will be faster to respond to a related pair of concepts—say, “hammer and nail”—than to an uncoupled pair, such as “hammer and cotton ball.” The timing of a person’s responses, therefore, can reveal hidden associations such as “black and danger” or “female and frail” that form the basis of implicit prejudice. “One of the questions that people often ask is, ‘Can we get rid of implicit associations?’ ” says psychologist Brian A. Nosek of the University of Virginia. “The answer is no, and we wouldn’t want to. If we got rid of them, we would lose a very useful tool that we need for our everyday lives.”

The problem arises when we form associations that contradict our intentions, beliefs and values. That is, many people unwittingly associate “female” with “weak,” “Arab” with “terrorist,” or “black” with “criminal,” even though such stereotypes undermine values such as fairness and equality that many of us hold dear.

I'm not sure what to make of all of this, because it's not necessarily something new. People have always had biases, maybe now we just analyze them a lot more. What I do know is that after reading Siri Carpenter's article, I'm now second-guessing every "independent" decision I have ever made. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.