Are Your Unaware Thought Biases Distorting Your Reality?
Subconscious biases have more impact on you than you think.
What is Bias? If I ask, is it a positive term or a negative term? Simply put, you can say bias is the inclination of opinion or thoughts towards a side to assess the circumstances or situation. Having an unjustified or irrational inclination of opinion toward something is something which could be outlined as rational. So, yes, most would jibe with it as a negative term. Can bias be a negative term?
Let’s see, for example, imagine you are a good person towards people. You want to help out others in need. You have an instinct and tendency to help others. Every morning you see a disabled man asking for money when you go for a walk to feel some cypher around the lake in your area. You are a kind-hearted person so you cannot ignore giving him some money every encounter you face with him. You are doing it for a month, then suddenly, one day, you hear from someone trustable that the man uses the money to take cocaine. He is a very pathetic guy. Not only does he begs people for money, but he also takes the social advantages of people disabled.
Now zoom out of the scenario. What do you feel right now about that person? Your preclude was the guy to be a person in need. As you are kind-hearted, you tried to bolster the as much as possible. But, when his actual image gets exposed, would you feel the same empathy towards him? Indeed, if you are aware of the situation, you would not. So, will you do the same favour toward the person later? You might feel cheated and reprobate the young guy’s actions. Nothing notable has changed in your stupid self; your aptitude for the guy would deter you. Let’s assume you would face more encounters like this and hear stories from your friends and colleagues about the same situations. Would you react to the people in need similarly? You would lose trust. When the trust is gone, there is no way back. Because every joint action we do regarding the circumstances is somehow based on faith. But, the reality is that everyone who asks for help is not a cheat. The people in need also sometimes return the favour generously from their souls, which should not be unnoticed. So, discounting the excellent side of the picture creates a distorted version of what is happening.
You can also flip the scenario and think that the same person you had helped one day helped you by letting you know that you just dropped your bag, wallet, or phone in the park while walking. From natural tendency, what would be your reaction towards the untoward dressed poor young man with the blotched face? You would feel gratitude and thank him, and it would cut a scratch on your mind. So, how would you fare with people in need the next time? You would help them with an even more open heart than before. The problem you have in some situations does not make it universal. Many people pretend to be imbeciles in health and are pretentious to take advantage of society, such as taking unemployment fees and social benefits. You would face people with double faces, and indeed, it would have some deep scar on your perception of the honesty and intentions of human nature. Considering these scenarios from your point of view, it can be concluded that your later actions are defined by the experiences you face. You might have some instilled perception about reality and different ideas. But, as you face the actual life situation and your knowledge, your perceptions also change.
Now, let’s get back to where we started. As it is referred to, bias is an inclination opinion how we give a different view. How we see what’s happening around us changes, shapes, and reshapes along with our concepts. So technically, you would always have some biases in life, whether good or bad.
Can anything be objectively black and white? Or do we have limitations; therefore, we cannot grasp the whole picture at a time which distorts our biases and perceptions?
The above scenario was too simplistic. We have to think now and then in our lifetime. One’s having faith in religion or not having it at all cannot happen at the same time. One cannot be a white supremacist and a non-white supremacist simultaneously. One cannot all the hopes on haven on people and be a misanthropist simultaneously. One cannot give weight to values on rational thinking at the highest order and be a pure hedonist simultaneously. You can add a long list of opposite contrasting views of realism here. To take a side of different views, one must conclude that his point of view is right from his perspective. Critical thinking and being conscious is pivotal to having the strength to differentiate between abstruse issues and realities. If one lacks this fundamental mental skill to acknowledge, he would be vulnerable to biases. Even the rational person somehow has to develop his preferences ( obviously, he shows a better handling capability in dealing with different views and knowledge). Therefore, technically no one is immune to biases. Because, even to understand the true nature of a subject or issue, one needs to develop his own biases where he values some reasonings and perspectives more than others.
If everyone has bias toward all spheres, why is it a big deal? Following the process of developing biases in critical areas of life sometimes hasten or sometimes slowly one creates his reasoning and understanding of a specific topic or subject. Mental bias exists to make one’s decision-making more accessible and fast. The problem is how one sees something does not necessarily depict the reality of the universe. How one’s reasoning and vision develop designs how he creates opinions or his own biases. To give the correct idea about something, it is necessary to have an overall well-reasoned realization. Analytic thinking and awareness of one’ s bias help one understand if it is fundamentally wrong with his reasoning.
We can at least try to find out biases of ideas and thoughts in different situations. When you start trying to be aware, it opens the door to understanding your biases and critically judging the world we live in.
