Attorney

Mark Baer

Name: Vikk Ai
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Educating and Helping People to Better Understand Biases, Their Impact, and How to Try and Keep Them in Check

Pasadena, California

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Specialties & Experience

Family Law

About Mark Baer

The topic of bias has long been an interest of mine. As such, I have engaged in extensive research and writing on the topic and related concepts. Left unchecked, biases cause people to constrict and distort the information they receive, understand, and consider. The more constricted and distorted the information received, understood, and considered, the more impaired will be the thinking involved. In an academic article pending publication, I am cited as follows for The Amplification of Bias in Family Law and Its Impact: “Mark Baer (2020) has persuasively argued that the skills of EI [Emotional Intelligence] are essential for reducing bias and that the narrow range of skills emphasized in law school does not include EI.” In 1994, Timothy D. Wilson and Nancy Brekke provided scientific proof that bias could be avoided or eliminated as follows: • By becoming aware of the bias and why it exists; • Having the motivation to overcome it; • Awareness of the direction and magnitude of the bias; and • The ability to apply an appropriate strategy to help reduce or otherwise manage the bias. The obligation or desire to be fair is a significant motivator in that regard. Except for sociopaths, all human beings possess emotional empathy, whether they realize it or not. Justice and fairness follow only when empathy is evenly distributed because empathy impacts one’s assessment of fairness and people tend to empathize with those who look, act and think as they do. Without the requisite emotional self-awareness, one tends not to realize how empathy is impacting their thoughts and actions. An article of mine was cited in a recently published article titled A Comprehensive Insight on Empathy, in which the authors discuss how injustice occurs when a judge’s empathy favors one side or the other. As Psychology Today commented, when it Tweeted my article Beware of Criticizing Concepts You Don’t Fully Understand, “Empathy is often misunderstood, yet it’s one of the most important skills you can practice.” Emotional self-awareness is the very foundation of emotional intelligence, in addition to being the means through which human beings calibrate their ethical and moral compasses. The opposite of emotional self-awareness is self-righteousness. Among many other things, emotional intelligence also impacts one’s adaptability to change, their resilience and coping skills, and emotional regulation. My deep and conceptual understanding of these concepts is immensely helpful in my work as a mediator, conflict resolution consultant, coach, trainer and educator on implicit bias.

Location & Contact

Pasadena, California

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