| Definition |
The missing word would mean:
"all humans can unknowingly become biased when self interest is involved".
|
| The word in relation to conflicts |
Conflicts often occur because of self interest.
The parties in a conflict make opposing claims, the usual causes being:
The third cause of disagreements is the phenomenon where people who are able
to make impartial judgements when self interest is not a factor, but
unknowingly become biased when self interest is involved. They genuinely
believe in the impartiality of their judgements. |
| It is part of human nature |
Something within us deceives us for our own benefit.
It was brought about by evolution. There is no name for this
phenomenon. Why is it that we do not have a name for such an important
aspect of our behavior ?
Presumably some technical names exist in specialized scientific literature and dictionaries. What matters is that no name appears in ordinary dictionaries or used in the daily spoken language.
The bias can be extensive in group self interest, such as between nations,
when the error is reinforced by exchange of opinion with other members of
the group. |
| Importance of the word |
We need to be convinced that the missing word deserves to exist.
Here are some common place situations where the missing word may be
relevant and helpful: A worker feels is underpaid in comparison to fellow workers. Two kids arguing 'you took a larger piece of the pie' or 'you pushed me'. Opponents at court of law, each interpreting the law to suit own interests. Government bureaucrat sympathetic to more taxes, in favor of expansion of the bureaucracy. Taxpayer has the opposite feelings. They exchange role and the feelings change. They look back and cannot notice the change. Doctors are convinced they deserve higher fees. Some of these biases are intended, for which we have the descriptive words. The missing word be applicable to the remaining numerous cases where the claimant's belief is honest.
Let us consider these three close concepts for which we have names:
pride, confusion and envy. We make use of them to describe our own and
other people's condition, either as present time condition or past
condition when we were unaware of them. We say 'I felt proud I did it',
'My mistake was the result of a confusion', 'I envy his ability ..'.
These are frequently used words. It is clear that the missing word
would be used more frequently if it existed. |
| Applies to everybody |
This phenomenon is so common that it is obvious the missing word applies to
all humans. However, if we search our memories we find no cases where it
happened to ourselves. The missing word, if it existed, would mean "it
can happens to all, including myself".
Some words influence our mentality. This missing word, if it was in
common use, would have considerable impact on our social interaction.
When arguing our case, the name of the phenomenon would flash in our
minds, we would be reminded that our judgement is not completely reliable
in the circumstances, we would reconsider our arguments
and the opposing arguments, and might even introduce a deliberate
correction. The human body makes use of corrective adjustments in many
areas. We are aware of some of them. |
| We cannot assign a word |
It may seem that there is advantage in assigning a name for this bias,
encouraging its use in the spoken language and its inclusion in
dictionaries. The expected effect is a reduction in the number of cases
going to court, more pleasant social attitude, less civil wars.
I believe this is not what would happen. The same mysterious influence that distorts our perception of impartial judgement will come into play. It will prevent us from remembering the meaning of the newly adopted word!
The dictionaries will say:
'initially the word meant ...'
because the new word will soon shift in meaning to the variety of
intentional bias or to incapable minds or both, and will be confined to
mean that 'others have this problem, never me'. The phenomenon will
again be without a name! |
| The reason it is missing |
In reality our failure to retain the word is due our inability to create
in our minds the concept needed to support the word. The missing word is
unique in this respect. We are aware of the ease with which we can
assign a new word to any object, real or abstract, and we know we can
get it to be widely used if we have the resources to promote it. In the
rare cases we might have slight difficulty with the concept. But for
this single missing word nature appears to be adamant in preventing us
from forming the concept.
If you feel you know now what the missing word stands for then try this
experiment. |
| Missing in all languages |
I am confident that this phenomenon does not have a name in current use
in any language. My extensive search confirms this.
We think of a language as an extensive collection of words smoothly laid
out to cover anything we can visualize or think of, down to the small
nuances. I am claiming there is a hole in the smooth coverage, a hole
which cannot be repaired. |
| What does concept mean? |
The use of the word 'concept' here needs some explanation. It is not an easy
task, and will have to lead me to a discussion beyond the topic of the
missing word. In the past few years I wrote some articles which can be
found in www.cellknowledge.com and which make the definition of 'concept'
much easier.
Life has only one code system in use, each item in this code relate to some biological ability that life developed in its evolution. Combination of these 'words' can describe any information conceivable. The genetic code is contained in such combinations, and details of any word in our own languages can exist only if recorded in these biological 'words'. There is no difficulty whatever in using the code: our complete memory is coded in them. The missing word is an exception because of nature's denial of the intent of the word, nature wants to control us. When I say the concept is missing I mean the biological description of the word was made intentionally unavailable to us. Our attempts returns to us the details of page where we read about the word, all the details of the arguments, but instead of the word we seem to encounter a 'black hole'. A comparison between our attempt to remember the missing word and other ordinary words will show a sharp contrast, which clarifies the intended meaning of the word concept as used here. |