Psychology presents insights about human nature that include biological and social influences, meaning-making, goal motivation, personal growth potential, social nature, cognitive limitations, and contextual dynamics. However, a deep dive into supporting evidence reveals a significant WEIRD bias, with researchers from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic backgrounds dominating this field. While the bias is recognized, the reliance on Western authorities, such as Kahneman and Tversky, persists, demonstrating a contradiction in understanding versus application. This highlights a need to question whose perspectives are omitted from psychological discourse.
The major insights about human nature are that humans are biologically and socially shaped, meaning-makers, motivated by needs and goals, capable of growth, inherently social, limited by cognitive biases, and contextually dynamic.
The bias in psychological research is influenced by overrepresentation of WEIRD populations, with Indigenous and non-Western perspectives less represented in mainstream psychology.
Despite recognizing WEIRD bias, AI systems often reproduce colonial mindsets by relying predominantly on Western researchers, highlighting a contradiction between understanding bias and addressing it.
Questioning whose research is being privileged can reveal that although AI recognizes biases analytically, it continues to reproduce them in its responses.
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