The Subconscious Bias When Discerning Right From Wrong – Wonder Woman (2016) #761

By Null -- November 14th, 2024

We all know the subtle ways to tell when someone is telling the truth or lying. The way their voice shakes, their body moves, their eyes darting around. There are plenty of human subtleties that can aid us from determining right and wrong. But, what if, you were Wonder Woman, your Lasso of Truth wrapped tightly around one of your greatest enemies, and all he says is the truth you do not want to hear? A truth you can not believe? How, then, does that influence bias on what is right and what is wrong? What is truth and what is lie? How are heroes just in these decisions when their own bias controls their very choices? 

In Wonder Woman (2016), Diana struggles with a new villain at large who happens to harbor some sort of mind control powers. She is originally suspicious that the perpetrator is an old foe of hers, Maxwell Lord, who also has psychic abilities, but upon questioning him in prison it turns out that he knows nothing of who the current villain could be. In Wonder Woman (2016) #761, Diana wraps Max in her Lasso of Truth, unable to believe what he is saying without the lasso.

But what he was saying is the truth, as proven by the lasso, but she is still unable to come to terms with it. Max sharing so willingly all the information he has to offer makes Diana believe he must be lying still, somehow. That this is all another game of mind control he is playing on her. Even as the Lasso tells her otherwise, she can’t come to terms.

She is so disturbed by this idea – Max being truthful despite him being an untrustworthy enemy – that she falls under the influence of the psychic villain once again, her mind turning Max Lord into Ares, the God of War, now a demonic memory that haunts her every waking moment.

Diana is petrified of putting trust into someone who has hurt and wronged her, someone who has hurt and wronged innocent people all for their own selfish gain or violent fantasies. Even after Max uses his abilities to free Diana from her mental warfare with Ares, she still is apprehensive.

“I know Maxwell Lord. I know the clarity he claims to provide comes with a price. A terrible price," Diana thinks as her and Max race off to track down and stop the real enemy of this story.

Because of her past relationship with Max Lord, the hardship he has caused her and others, and his villainous background in which she will never forget, Diana is biased in believing his word, even when it is delivered by the Lasso of Truth. So, if even great heroes like Diana, ones who are bound by doing what is just, refuse to relieve themselves of their biases in order to better determine what is right and what is wrong, then what does that say about society?

In the modern day, people are quick to anger and quick to fight. As it pertains to the average person, no one is trustworthy, barely even close friends or family. The hate we keep inside of our hearts and minds clouds our judgment, just as it did to Wonder Woman. We need to be able to let go of biases and opinions, our idea of what’s right, in order to discover what is the genuine truth. Then, hopefully, in time, trust will be regained in society and people will be less prone to hate and more prone to love.

-Null