Rabbi Zeev Goldberg
Why did all Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee side with Dr. Ford? Why did all Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee side with Judge Kavanaugh?
Nobody can doubt this case is ambiguous at best. Yet all Democrats reached the exact same conclusions, as did the Republicans. Liberals heard the voice of a brave and broken woman. Conservatives heard the sounds of a forgery, sham and a disgrace.
Of course, these fissures cut more deeply than our elected officials.
The day after Kavanaugh and Ford gave their grueling testimony, The New York Times editorial board published a piece entitled, “Why Brett Kavanaugh Wasn’t Believable.”
And the very same day, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published a piece entitled, “Confirm Brett Kavanaugh.”
To me, this reflects the great difficulty that we encounter when searching for the truth. We are all strongly influenced and biased by our surroundings.
Social scientists know this too. Fascinating research was reported in the journal Science in October 2008. The study involved hot and cold cups of coffee. Students were asked to hold a cup of coffee in their hands for a few seconds before reading a biography about an imaginary person. The students were then asked to evaluate the person’s traits. The students who had held a hot cup of coffee were significantly more likely to describe the imaginary person as “warm and friendly” than the students who had held a cold coffee.
Why did all Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee side with Dr. Ford? Why did all Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee side with Judge Kavanaugh?
Nobody can doubt this case is ambiguous at best. Yet all Democrats reached the exact same conclusions, as did the Republicans. Liberals heard the voice of a brave and broken woman. Conservatives heard the sounds of a forgery, sham and a disgrace.
Of course, these fissures cut more deeply than our elected officials.
The day after Kavanaugh and Ford gave their grueling testimony, The New York Times editorial board published a piece entitled, “Why Brett Kavanaugh Wasn’t Believable.”
And the very same day, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published a piece entitled, “Confirm Brett Kavanaugh.”
To me, this reflects the great difficulty that we encounter when searching for the truth. We are all strongly influenced and biased by our surroundings.
Social scientists know this too. Fascinating research was reported in the journal Science in October 2008. The study involved hot and cold cups of coffee. Students were asked to hold a cup of coffee in their hands for a few seconds before reading a biography about an imaginary person. The students were then asked to evaluate the person’s traits. The students who had held a hot cup of coffee were significantly more likely to describe the imaginary person as “warm and friendly” than the students who had held a cold coffee.
The researchers concluded that a person’s environment deeply effects their thoughts and deeds. At times we are conscious of this influence, oftentimes we are not.
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I always wondered why in sports when arguing with the referee that he made the wrong call, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE TIME, the person is arguing that the call should have gone in his team's favor. How come nobody EVER goes out to argue that the call should have been in favor of the other team??
We are FILLED with biases!!!
ואידך פירושא זיל גמור.
