Action Bias

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In karate, as with other forms and disciplines of self-fense, there are meme’s that speak to striking first, striking fast and striking hard. This model, as with many of human history, speak to “Men of Action” over “Men of Contemplative Mind.” Things have and are changing but the reality of it is that humans, basically, still require certain inherent traits or at least inherent conditioned reflexes passed from generation to generation for one primary purpose, “Survival.” 

(the following are quotes with changes by me to reflect the subject or topic of this article)

“Humans by their very inherited conditioned reflexes tend toward action, even if it achieves nothing. We cannot stand still and wait, we are not endowed with a mind that says, wait until clarity arrives to act, act now even if it fails the perception is going to be a person of action, a positive trait. The action bias is accentuated when the situation is new or unclear. This is especially problematic to the young for the young have not attained experience so they cannot yet judge things so they tend to compensate with a sort of hyperactivity. This drives humans a bit crazy because we can’t stand inactivity ending up with humans working hard to avoid just doing nothing by doing any damn things just because.” 

“It is human, a tendency of humans to want to do anything but sit and wait in the face of uncertainty. In the old hunter-gatherer world, action trumped reflection. Lightening fast reactions were essential to survival; deliberation could and was often - fatal. We humans today are descendants of quick responders, our world today is different while our conditioned reflexes of all our ancestors still unconsciously feels the danger as if death were on the front doorstep. Today’s modern times leans heavily toward reflection, even tho our base conditioning suggests otherwise.” 

“Even today, you get no honor, no trophy, no belt or any accolades toward your prowess due to your ability to make exactly the right decision by waiting. If you demonstrate decisiveness and quick judgment, and the situation improves (though perhaps coincidentally), It is quite possible your dojo-mates will see you the hero, and sensei sees you at the next level of black belt. Society at large still prefers rash action to a sensible wait-and-see strategy.” 

“In new and shaky circumstances, we humans feel compelled to do something, anything. Afterward we feel better, even if we have made things worse by acting too quickly or too often. If the situation is unclear, hold back until you can assess your options unless the situation warrants fast and quick for survival. In the martial art and karate world of self-fense hesitation can mean grave harm or even death. In this world you still have to find a balance and that is achieved only by training, practice, education, experience and understanding for, ‘All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone’.” 

It would seem that this, “Action Bias,” is one of those things one must train and practice so it is appropriately applied to any given circumstance in any given situation. Yes, our modern society is evolving at extremely fast rates but one thing is not, humans are not able nor will they evolve fast enough to keep up so it is incumbent on all of us to accept this fact and take the steps necessary to continue learning and teaching social coping skills to handle all kinds and all levels of conflict and violence. The balance therefore is about recognizing and appropriately responding to the stimulus and human triggers so that we can continue to create conditioned reflex responses appropriate to all sorts of events, situations and conditions. 

How many reading this article actually knew of and understood action bias? How many who may have heard it mentioned before actually understood and understand how that applies to martial art and karate training for self-fense? 

Sensei: If you understand these forms and types of bias, you can train and teach to them giving your students a huge advantage over others. At least a solid consideration should be applied. 

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