Member-only story
Biased Towards Unbiased Data
Our biases can change, but first we have to recognize that they exist.
Did you know that human beings are biased toward optimism? About 80% of the population, according to estimates from numerous studies, display an optimism bias (Sharot, 2011).
- We assume we will enjoy our vacations.
- We assume that we won’t get into car accidents.
- We assume that we won’t get sick from an invisible disease.
Ironically, the very thing that has made portions of my life a living hell — my proclivity toward depression — makes me less likely to have an optimism bias!
Hashtag #Blessed, amiright?
While “healthy humans expect the future to be slightly better than it ends up being, people with mild depression show no bias when predicting future events” (Sharot, 2011). In fact, my problem has been conditioning myself to expect things to be better and not worse than they are likely to turn out to be.