Data, Political Correctness and the Observer Effect

Today, as i was driving for work, I listened to BBC Radio. The discussion was about a report by Uber. The findings of the report stated that customers with African sounding names had to wait on average 30% more time for an Uber taxi. The implied message was that Uber taxi drivers in general, are trying to “avoid” customers of colour. The BBC commentator was British of African origin and he immediately added that, the day before, he had to wait for an awfully long time to get a black cab in West London as most of the cabs were “avoiding” him.

I am not sure if the Uber report is correct, however I can clearly see its effects. If we assume that the findings of the report represent the true status, but that also this report was not available, then people of colour would not have noticed any discriminatory behaviour on behalf of the Uber drivers (as we don’t habitually compare your Uber driver performance every morning before breakfast!). There would be no discussion on this effect and the BBC commentator would not have felt that the London black-cab drivers ignore him.

Now that the report is available, the people in general, feel that Uber has to put on a "political correctness straightjacket" for a while in order to put things straight and the people of colour feel that there is another solid argument that proves racism is rampant. As a result, the latter may adopt a stance reflecting their, now enhanced, disenchantment. Human relationships follow the “mirror effect”, that is to say, if you smile to the mirror, the mirror smiles back at you. Meaning that, the results of this study will help only to impede the gradual and natural process of “mutual acceptance”, which will certainly take place, eventually. A typical “observer effect” that we witness in the Quantum Physics world (the observer affects the result).

You see, in my opinion, societies are not machines where once you change the data set, you immediately have a new predetermined output. Societies respond to data sets in a different manner and much slower. I am not saying that data/stats have to be abolished. I am sure that a study showing that the population of the Elephants have dropped by 30% the last 10 years will only help people adopt a more responsible approach on this matter. What I am saying is that the data need to be handled and managed with care. And that in the name of the political correctness we must not disregard the final goal, which in this case is to make people understand that we are all one. 

So, next time we are preparing a report, we must first think the grand picture and then decide how to present the data (i guess a think globally, act locally type of thing).

Have a good day, 

Kostis