What do unconscious bias, muscle memory and relapse have in common?

How connections in the nervous system influence our behaviors

I rarely watch movies, but the ones I have watched tend to stay with me. I once watched a movie where the main character was played by an actor that I was familiar with from a sitcom in which he had played the role of a near perfect family man, husband, father and pastor. I had watched several episodes of this sitcom years before watching the movie. Early on in the movie, his wife was murdered and even though I didn’t see the actual scene, I think someone who was more used to watching movies might have guessed that he was responsible. However, even as the evidence against him mounted, I kept telling myself that he couldn’t possibly have killed his wife. Wasn’t this “Mr. Perfect” from the other show? He couldn’t possibly hurt anyone, let alone his wife. Well, by the end of the movie, it was obvious that I was wrong. Why was I so sure he was innocent? Obviously, my mind had assigned a “good guy” label to the actor and as a result, it was hard for me to imagine him in a “bad guy” role.

Fortunately, this was just a movie and my misconceptions didn’t really have any consequences, other than showing me one of the many ways in which unconscious bias works. We tend to form opinions about people and/or situations based on our past experiences of people who are like them in some way or another and then treat them accordingly.

Unconscious bias occurs as a result of the way our brains make connections that are intended to help our memory. A dear friend who is white would start talking about a couple she was friends with when she saw me in the early days of our friendship. At first, I didn’t even know who she was talking about and then I realized she was referring to a black couple who happened to be her friends, not mine. I had met them but barely knew them. Yet, in her mind, I was associated with them because we had the same skin color. I could easily assume that this happened because my friend didn’t know many black people, but that it happens even with those of us who have grown up and lived in racially diverse communities.

I was exposed to people from different cultures and ethnicities from a very early age. Even so, I recently found myself confusing two friends when I was trying to remember who posted something on social media. There was really no reason for me to have confused these two women. I had met the ladies at different stages of my life and had not seen either of them for years but had connected with each of them on social media. The only thing they had in common besides being female was that fact that they were both Asian.

Many years ago, a European friend of mine was visiting us in my parents’ home in Lagos, Nigeria. She was never one to have a big appetite, so I wasn’t surprised to see the tiny food portion on her plate when it was time to eat. However, our cook expressed his surprise that she was OK with such a small food portion and said something which effectively translates to “your ‘double’ was here earlier and she ate a decent amount of food”. Her double? Well, it turns out that he was referring to another white woman who had just visited. If the first white guest had a healthy appetite, why doesn’t this one? After all, they’re both white women! (This really happened, and variations of this scenario happen all the time!)

The connections made by our brains manifest in different ways. For example, if I can’t remember someone’s first name, but easily remember it when I’m given their last name, it is because my brain associates both names with each other. Similarly, going back to a specific location may trigger memories that had otherwise been forgotten, a phenomenon that plays a huge role in my field of addiction medicine. When we tell our patients that to avoid relapse, they need to avoid “people, places and things” that were associated with their past drug use, it is because these act as triggers for relapse. Associations are formed in the brain that connect locations or people with the dopamine rush from using their substance of choice, exposure to which leads to cravings and frequently relapse.

A similar phenomenon occurred recently while I was playing a song on my ukulele. At some point realized that I was attempting to play a G minor chord instead of a G major chord, even though the chord sheet was right in front of me. I then noticed that the G chord followed a C minor chord and realized that I had gotten used to playing the G minor chord after the C minor chord while playing another song that I’d recently been practicing. I noticed that the only time C minor appeared in the second song, it was followed by G minor. My fingers had gotten used to associating those two chords together (muscle memory). When playing from “muscle memory”, my fingers “know” where to go based on getting certain “cues”. I only recently learned the fingering for these minor chords, so it’s understandable that my brain had formed “shortcuts” to help me remember the fingering. The only problem was that the chord sequence I was playing from muscle memory was right for one song but not the other.

Just as an understanding of the way the brain makes connections may help improve one’s ability to play a musical instrument, individuals in recovery need to understand how their brains function in order to reduce their risk of relapse. We all need to understand how normal brain functions can lead to unconscious bias if unchecked. Rather than assuming we are immune, we should be aware of our preconceived notions and make a conscious effort to avoid allowing them to guide our actions when interacting with others.

Unconscious bias is very real, denying it will only make the problem worse. The solution starts with self- awareness everyone making a conscious effort to eliminate this and other forms of bias from our daily lives and society in general.