The 2020 Academy Awards witnessed the South Korean film, Parasite, win the award for the Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and 4 other titles. This movie being a massive hit, displayed an inequality between the social classes of society. It presents to us two Korean families, one from the wealthy neighborhood and the other trying to maintain themselves at the poverty line. Though the whole story begins how one member of the less privileged family gets the opportunity to be the tutor of the daughter in the ‘rich’ family. It ends up how he paves the way for their whole family working for the ‘rich’ family as maid, driver, tutor and art teacher, without even reflecting they are the part of the same family, leading to a series of awful consequences. In short, it was an unjust infiltration by a family of the ‘lower class’ to become the servants of the richer family by lying.
However, the most fascinating part about this movie does not lie in its thrilling screenplay or the elegant acting. It lies in the audience’s minds; how the people viewed the movie. (If you have watched the Parasite, you can relate to it. ) Most of the people were actually siding for the underdogs despite their wrongful actions or ‘crimes’. We were vowing that the lie of the poor family would not be uncovered. We were hoping that the rich do not discover, their servants are actually emptying their bottles of wine, in their house, as they go to enjoy their trip. We were actually siding the fact that the rich family should deserve such a lie for their “condescending” behavior. Why was it that we were crossing limits of morality and supporting the wrong doers?
Because of the Affinity Bias. The Affinity Bias is our tendency to favor or like those people who share the same interests, experiences, backgrounds, origin, language… (or ton of other aspects) with us. While watching Parasite, we were in affinity with the ‘poor family’ because we shared the same views or prejudices about the ultra-rich that how they are condescending, entitled and undeserving assholes. However, the Affinity Bias expands from just being biased towards characters in a fiction to the real life. Let’s see how.
Table of Contents
The Gravity
Humans, unconsciously, tend to gravitate towards people whom we believe share the same nature with us. We feel a natural connection with people who are like us. It is founded on the principle of ‘Likes Attract’.
However, there are three underlying reasons behind the affinity bias:
- Our brains are lazy. Since, our brains don’t want to work too hard, naturally, they form shortcuts or heuristics that loosely analyze people.
- We form unconscious associations. Our experiences and upbringing shapes our attitude towards people. That is why we form associations with those who have the same experiences, as they are to also have the same attitude.
- We feel safe with those who are like us because they are likely to have the same views than those from different groups.
However, the aspects we take into account for finding similarities differ from person to person. The aspect that is the closest to our heart is also the one our mind prioritizes in finding the similarity. So for one person, the top aspect or similarity criteria may be Origin or Place of Birth, for another it may be if the other person plays on the same Minecraft Map and the third one may like people who listen Phonk reverbs on loop. We would gravitate towards those the most who match our top similarity criteria.
In a way, the Affinity bias creates a space for like-mindedness. It causes people to seek company of those who fall into their ‘comfort zone’. We feel happy because if we are living with those who think, speak or live like us, then everything is going according to how we wish. And it is important. Important in the times of adversity. Without the Affinity Bias, world probably would not reach where it is today., because it led to the most important element of the society – community, in the early stages. If our predecessors would not have gravitated towards the like-minded people, there would have been no French Revolution, no Satyagraha Movements or any other Independence Fights, no religions and no formation of important ideologies that have led to economic progress. In a way, Affinity Bias becomes crucial during distress as our comfort zone becomes the ‘safe zone’ and we reject considering others, because the stakes are just too high.
But in today’s world, most of us are not fighting to waver off the other battalion, save our own life or preserve the community we are a part of. We go to our offices, do our work, grab a cup of Mocha and the life goes on. And as we have transcended from facing threats to life to facing life, Affinity bias has become more of a repulsive force than an attractive one in the world.
The Anti-Gravity
As we are gravitated towards specific people, we are also unconsciously rejecting other people. And though this idea of a ‘like-minded’ group appeals to our teenage brains, it isn’t so fun when you substitute it in workplaces and courts. That is when we really see how the Affinity Bias creates a sort of unity/disunity situation.
Imagine a usual workplace. During hiring, it has been found that if an employee may be associated to the manager through any sort of loose ends then the manager may feel affinity with the candidate. So, the manager may choose that specific employee rather than a more deserving candidate for the position, just because these guys post-graduated from the same college. Or an Art professor may like only a specific student who reminds him of himself.
This paves the way towards favoritism not based on evidence of competence, but based on similarity. Though this may not seem as problematic at the beginning. It unfolds paramount consequences as to protect the ‘favorite’, one despises the others. Even though the person or group , we relate to, may be wrong, we still try to protect them and shift the blame on others. But guess what? We are protecting no one but our own ego. Our ego tells us that the person whom we tend to have a strong similarity with, should be right and cannot do any wrong, because to like that person is our choice. The question of the person being right and wrong is interpreted by ego as our choice being right or wrong. And the ego hates being wrong. That is why we would ignore all sort of red flags they may be withholding in their actions and make up all sorts of justifications to satisfy our ego. And it is in the process of justification that we shift the blame to others or the victim itself. So next time, your employer\teacher takes the side of your undeserving companion and blames you just because they seem to have a similarity. Do not resent, but feel pity for them for they have fallen to the Affinity Bias.
At workplace, since managers also tend to hire only those employees that have similar qualities or values to that of himself/herself, it leads to homogeneity. This fails the system to be creative and innovative. New and innovative ideas are not generated because all the employees withhold same beliefs and attitudes. If there are any ideas different from the streamline, they are dismissed as it challenges the favoritism of the employers for those employees who are similar to them. Thus, Affinity Bias limits us to only interacting with people who fall into our comfort zone. And when we are trapped in the zone of comfort, progress is stagnant if not inverse.
Another interesting aspect of the Affinity Bias can be seen when it comes to serving justice. If the juror may have a strong similarity with the defendant like Ethnicity, Religion etc. he/she may even voice the judgement in the defendant’s side or provide a less harsh treatment. However, distortion is a double-edged sword. Lack of similarity can often be amplified to strong resistance or opposition, in its radical form. Thus, a juror may not side with the defendant when needed because of lack of similarity perceived as opposition to his/her favored group.
Beyond Gravity and Anti-Gravity
The Affinity Bias, along with creating separation may also lead to opposition or rejection depending upon the relevance of the top similarity criteria. The foundations of racism, sexism and other -isms were only formed by the Affinity Bias as people started to gravitate towards other people, similar to them in terms of color, religion, gender, culture… and separate those who were not. It was only when we considered this separation as rejection that these ideologies really started to become worse for the world. It further led to the Confirmation Bias. Similarity became the basis of judgement of right and wrong. People formed prejudices and stereotypes against those who were not similar to them and made them the enemy, resulting in discrimination. Till date, this what fuels injustice and unjust favoritism in almost all areas of life.
To summarize, the Affinity Bias is ‘us’ liking people who are like us. We form the basis of similarity based on unconscious associations like interests, background, experience, ethnicity etc. Surrounding ourselves people similar to us provides a ‘safe zone’ or a comfort zone for us (or our ego) as they would only echo our opinions and views. This may be useful to bring about major changes like a revolution or a resistance, however in today’s world, where we are used to enjoying ourselves in workplaces; Affinity Bias can actually lead to unjust favoritism, dismissal of new ideas, injustice and even discrimination leading to oppression. To counteract this implicit (or unconscious) bias we must inculcate consciousness into every aspect of our life. We must assess our judgements about a group or a person and state valid reasons (not similarities) to ourselves that why we may be favoring or liking them. It is only through honest and brutal questioning that we may be able to point out our unjust and even discriminatory views against people and groups around gender, race and ethnicity. Reject rejection and have the humility to listen and consider views not similar to yours, so that you are not rigid about the people falling under your comfort zone, but have no comfort zone.
Follow Neutrally Bias to become being comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Neutrally Biased 
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