This may be a continuing series: I have thought about the issue for quite a while.
Despite the fact that several woke bar associations have paid me in the past to create and teach “elimination of bias” seminars (I don’t accept those jobs any more), I know that bias can’t be “eliminated.” All biases can be is recognized and handled, and even that’s not easy. It is important to try, however. “Bias makes you stupid” is one of Ethics Alarms’ mottos, and I remain quite confident of its accuracy.
I have a lot of biases, positive and negative, many of which appear here regularly. Some I am quite attached to: for example, I am biased against unethical politicians no matter how much I may agree with their policies or their accomplishments. At this point, I am biased against all journalists,and I believe that is the necessary starting point for anyone following what we laughingly call “the news.” However, there are some biases I hold that I recognize as unfair and that distort my judgment to an unethical degree.
This brings me to the subject of slow walkers.
Yesterday, while walking Spuds, I passed a woman whom I’d estimate to be in her early to mid-thirties. She did not appear to be in poor health; she did not appear in pain, nor was she over-weight. She didn’t appear to be stopping to smell the roses or to be glorying in a beautiful Virginia day either. The woman just was moving in slow motion, by my standards. And my immediate, reflex thought was, “This woman is an idiot.”
Of course, that assumption was unfair, but I can’t help it. My father, the old soldier, marched everywhere; even with his hideously deformed foot (from the wartime hand grenade wound), I had trouble keeping up with him. “The faster you get where you’re going, the more time you have to do something else,” my father said frequently, an observation I regard as sensible and practical. One of the first things that attracted me to my wife, Grace, was that when we were dating she matched me stride for stride even though I’m taller. I identify brisk walking with a proactive and productive nature, industriousness, and an active mind. I know that’s a generalization; of course it is. But mu prejudice against the slow walkers continues.
Part of my bias I blame on a woman who worked for me at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I had hired her against the advice of my boss, in part because I needed to fill a key position quickly, and she also had an impressive CV. However, she proved to be a lazy and dull-witted employee—and she walked at a snail’s pace. If I was taking the staff to lunch, everyone had to use baby steps to avoid leaving her blocks behind; I came to think of her as a human slug. Eventually, I fired her, and replaced her with a fast-talking, fast-walking firecracker of a woman who, truth to tell, was only marginally more effective.
There are many, many reasons why someone might habitually walk slowly by my standards, and intelligence is way, way down the list, if it belongs on the list at all. I know this intellectually. Now I just have to somehow absorb that fact viscerally.
So far, I haven’t been able to do it.
Ethics Alarms 
It’s good to recognize this. The woman out walking may have had something on her mind that she was mulling over. She may have just wanted to take in as much of nature as she could. She may have had a recent injury from which she has recovered but has made her cautious.
We get ourselves into trouble when we assume we know the reason(s) why someone behaves a certain way.
Well, yesterday I cut through a parking lot to avoid such a slow walker. I was trying to turn right. There was a woman walking slowly on the sidewalk, looking at her phone. I knew she would step off the sidewalk without even looking for vehicles. I also knew I would have to come to a complete stop on a busy road for probably 15 seconds to let her slowly cross the intersection. Instead, I cut through a parking lot to avoid the intersection and I don’t think she ever knew I was there. Why, you might ask? I was on a motorcycle. It is incredibly dangerous for me to be stopped on a busy road on a small motorcycle. In the event of being rear-ended, I will either be seriously injured or killed. My wife has been rear-ended twice in the last 5 years waiting for people to turn left on that very road (women on cell phones while driving). I know you are not supposed to cut through parking lots to avoid intersections, but my life is not worth obeying the rule in such a situation. I also had to blow a stop sign that night (and a 2-way stop at that) in a hurry because as I was slowing down for the intersection, a large, muscular dog (and no, I don’t know if it is was a pit bull or not) came charging out of the darkness at me. Yesterday was a bad day on the road.
Which is more dangerous, oblivious slow walkers on the roadways or unleashed aggressive dogs?
Every day I find myself behind some slow-walking nimnal. It is maddening to me beyond belief. My mother was the most intelligent and capable person I have ever known. She was nearly impossible to keep up with at all times. It was one of her hallmarks. I once worked with another lady who was absolutely brilliant without a doubt. She also walked at a pace with which it was nearly impossible to keep up. I tend to think there is some correlation between intelligence and a person’s speed at which they operate. The two seem to go hand in hand from my experience. I know for sure they accomplish more on an average day than most other people.
Slow walking for no good reason is to me lazy and irritating…but excusable if you’re walking a Basset Hound.
Wondering if Jack has to “keep up” with Spuds.
For me, I always enjoy a good brisk walk. My real problem, however, is I eat too fast…especially when my mind is in high gear.
My dad was a slow eater. He’d still be at the table savoring and chewing his food long after my brother and I and my mother were done and had left the table. Food was a big deal to him, a comfort. He’d had a hard life.
Yes. Spuds is so thrilled—still—to be out and given some freedom after being confined for more than a year in a small bathroom that he is prone to bursting into a gallop for no reason other than the pure joy of it.
Hah! Mrs. OB is a fast walker. I am not. She’s half a foot shorter than I am. We just move at two different paces. In almost all things, frankly. I invariably end up walking behind her, which I think I do subconsciously like a male quail bringing up the rear and keeping an eye on his charges.
When I played golf, I was made aware of the need to be attuned to your natural pace, so you don’t end up rushing yourself or your swing. Or dawdling and overthinking. These days, when I go for a walk, I’m not walking the get anywhere, I’m out for a walk. So, I think and observe and proceed at my natural pace. Most times, sans Mrs. OB. Hah!
I am a fast walker with long strides. Slow people bother me because it is really hard for me to walk slow.
The State Fair (or any sporting event) can be infuriating. I have remarked (a la the Calvin and Hobbes strip where they have a slow walking race and Hobbes starts walking backwards) that even walking backwards I could not walk as slowly as some people at the State Fair.
I don’t judge slow people though. I just get annoyed.
“The faster you get where you’re going, the more time you have to do something else,”
I may have to steal this.
-Jut
My dad would be honored.
I live near a highway where the road transitions to 70mph traveling out of town and 55 towards the interior. My entrance is the middle of a three mile section posted as 65.
The number of folks who drive 70 after the transition down to 55 seemingly is greater than the folks who actually travel at or above the posted speed traveling away from town.
Absolutely infuriating. I’m sure there’s some selection bias as I’m seeing more slow folks when at high speed and being passed while following lower speeds, but it seems as if the signs have the opposite effect.
I agree that an occasional review of one’s own prejudices and stereotypes. Just remember (from a great Nigerian author): “The problem with stereotypes is not that are incorrect, but that they are incomplete!”
Is this an ethics issue about innate bias or simply about pet peeves? I have lots if pet peeves and feed them regularly. Yet. I don’t think of them as biases, those things that make me crazy . . . well . . . crazier. I favorite peeve is slower drivers in the fast or passing lane. I don’t judge them as dimwitted, blithering idiots they are (though, truth be told, they are a blight on humanity and deserve the fist waving as I scream past them on the right!!). I just get annoyed. Another is my proven belief that, in general, a person’s IQ is inversely proportionate (proportional?) to the size of one’s pickup truck.
jvb
jvb,
It isn’t that IQ is inversely proportional to the size of the pickup, just one’s ability to park.
And while pet peeves can give a clue about biases, sometimes it isn’t something that really bothers us that has underlying biases. For example, I look at a girl who wears really revealing clothes, gobs of makeup, and lots of jewelry and immediately assume she is shallow and not terribly bright. I might also assume that means she’s promiscuous. None of that is necessarily fair to her, but there is general bias in our culture that affords greater respect to people who are better, more professionally dressed. (Not that I’m trying to head Fetterman’s way with this…) So it isn’t a pet peeve that this girl is wearing makeup, but it does immediately categorize her in my brain as someone I wouldn’t bother discussing Goldbach’s Conjecture or the Late Roman Empire with. But in truth, she might be a really smart, personable girl if I gave her a chance, and perhaps she is just plagued with poor self-esteem that she bolsters with her garb and accoutrements. Maybe she would be excited to discuss prime numbers, or whether the rise of Christianity merely coincided with or caused the decay of the Roman Empire.
And as a confession, I am by far, far, far more a classist than I am a racist. I am, for example, heavily biased against sagging pants, but I associate that with a certain socioeconomic ladder rather than with any race.
Your comment is well taken, Ryan. You always bring a higher sense of purpose to the discussion.
This was fun to read – thank you.