A thing of beauty is a joy forever. I had never realised how firmly the lines from John Keats’s verse had embedded themselves within me, in the form of an unconscious bias, until this incident happened.
While hiking in the lush green terrain of Coorg along with some of my relatives, we came across a large, meticulously woven spider web. Trapped in it was a beautiful, angelic butterfly. The butterfly was fluttering its wings, trying desperately to disentangle itself from the web of potential death. In the corner sat the owner of the mansion, the spider, staring at the prey with the most ruthless eyes.
Reflexively I decided to free this beautiful creature. All my sympathies lined up for the butterfly and I decided to be the hero for this damsel in distress. But before I could make another move, some words of wisdom echoed in my ears, with my uncle, standing beside me, suggesting that we should leave it as it is and not intervene in the default ways of nature.
This kicked off a full-fledged debate, with my younger cousin and myself teaming up for the butterfly’s cause. My uncle solely held the rein for the other side of the argument. His view was very clear: we are mere trespassers here, and have no right to indulge in what was naturally destined and designed. He tried to explain to us the most intricate and subtle interplays of nature, the ways in which it works to maintain balance across living species. He emphasised that there was absolutely no need for us to feel any indignation. This is how the laws of the forest operate and they should be allowed to be, without any form of artificial interference.
With one part of me conceding to his logic, I extricated the other, rebelling part by reasserting my authority and accepting his discernment. We continued the hike, leaving the spider with its prospective dinner.
The episode was behind us but the larger moral dilemma remained within me, perpetuating itself, moving back and forth through morality and logic. If it was a small ant or some other ordinary creature from the taxonomy of insects, would we have even noticed it? If yes, would that trigger the same level of keenness to perform the saviour act? Around us everywhere we see hundreds of spider webs; I never bother to look at the poor souls trapped there and pity their misfortune, let alone harbour the thought of freeing them. The very reason we noticed the spider web and we had the debate was that it was a thing of beauty — the butterfly, which caught our attention.
Living as an educated individual in a free society, I felt that we continue to unknowingly hold some biases that we develop over time. It requires many maturity updates to install in your psychological system, and at times conscious efforts to develop a good sense of judgment. I was small at that time, but with age and experience I absolutely understood and approved each and every word my uncle had said that day.
As humans we have crossed our line in disturbing the balance of nature. Saving the butterfly that day wouldn’t obviously have been a nature-harming act per se , but it was borne out of the same larger tendency to interfere in nature’s activities by exercising control out of one’s defined scope.
Extrapolating the thing of beauty bias in a broader sense, I realise how invariably the public wave of sympathy sits on the side of the accused, if he is some popular person, especially a silver screen hero. There are demands raised for mercy, and to reduce the harshness of the punishment taking into account the stigma on his career and his stardom. Although the law has to be unbiased, building public sentiment of that scale is a powerful enough indicator to prove how unconscious biases can hinder our rational judgment.
Time and again I feel there is a need to identify and curb such unconscious biases, which invisibly influence our decision-making. With the help of eye-opening incidents followed by some thoughtful introspection, we should ensure that our rational sense of judgment really remains rational.
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