Before we start getting into the meat and potatoes if this blog, I want to spend a bit of time talking about bias. Here are a few definitions (from various dictionaries):
bias (noun) - a preference towards a particular subject or thing.- an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially: a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment: prejudice
biased (adj) - tending to yield one outcome more frequently than others in a statistical experiment- having an expected value different from the quantity or parameter estimated.
First thing I want to make clear: I am biased.
Second thing I want to make clear: so are you.
We all have biases. Our upbringing. Our culture. Our education. Our personal experiences. Our exposures to others. All of these things affect how we interpret information we are exposed to.
Bias is a pretty normal and natural thing. Often we are biased without even knowing it, simply because we haven't been exposed to knowledge or experiences that reveal our biases to us.
In some cases, bias is not only normal, but expected and desirable. We are all naturally biased towards anything that promotes our personal well being. Parents tend to be biased towards their children and, since we are responsible for the health, education and safety of our children, that is as it should be. As business owners or employees we are biased towards our own products or services. Meanwhile, consumers are biased toward their own needs, rather than the needs of a company. We tend to favour our own community and cultural traditions, our own language and our own beliefs.
There are times when we hold negative biases that cross over to prejudice without really understanding that the views we hold are biased in a negative way. A child who is raised in a racist household has no understanding that the beliefs they hold about certain racial groups are wrong until those views are challenged. I recall an old neighbour of ours, a Metis, describing something that happened with his then girlfriend (his wife, by the time we knew him). She was white and had been raised by racist parents. The first time she visited his family, they had a bowl of mixed nuts on the table, including Brazil nuts. She asked someone to pass her some "n****r toes." She meant the Brazil nuts. They were totally shocked, and she had no idea why. She had never heard them called by any other name, and they had to tell her what they were really called, and why the name for them she'd used was inappropriate.
Bias tends to cross the line to prejudice and bigotry far too often. It can happen when people are unaware of their own biases, or refuse to acknowledge them. It happens when people simply refuse to accept evidence contrary to their personal beliefs, or twist evidence to meet those beliefs. There is a tendency to correlate our personal beliefs - our biases - with our own self worth. We hold to our beliefs because we are convinced they are right; because they are superior to the beliefs of others; because they meet some deep seated need within us. There is also something called "confirmation bias," which is when we have a tendency to seek out and interpret information that confirms our own beliefs while ignoring or lending less weight to information that contradicts them, even to the point of rewriting our own memories.
All the things that contribute to our biases - the experiences of our lives and the knowledge gained in the process - are valuable and should not be ignored. The challenge becomes recognising when these experiences are contributing to our biases, and determining whether or not it is helpful (as in, it adds to our intellectual and emotional development as a person) or harmful (when it clouds our ability to accept evidence contrary to our experiences). Bias towards my children is helpful when it makes me a better parent; unhelpful if it leads to my ignoring or excusing unacceptable behaviour.
Here are a few things that add to my personal biases.
I was raised Polish Catholic. My husband was raised French Catholic. I point out the ethnicities because, growing up, I had no idea that some of what I attributed to Catholicism was actually part of my Polish heritage. It wasn't until I met my future husband's family and learned some of their customs and traditions that I began to realize that other people did things differently, even though they were still Catholic. Today, I no longer consider myself a Catholic, though I am still (small c ) catholic, in that the word actually means "universal church." For a variety of reasons I do not take part in any formal religion, but I am a Christian. Yet I still continue many of the traditions and customs associated with the religion of my upbringing, because I have found value in them. In the past, I didn't have the knowledge necessary to be able to separate what was cultural from what was doctrine. Since then, I have learned to recognise the mark of culture in various belief systems - most of the time, at least. I've learned to separate what people do from what their religion teaches. In the process I have turned a judgemental eye on my own beliefs, through the lens of my own experiences and the knowledge I have gleaned over the years, and have come to the conclusions that have solidified my views about God and religion. The more I was able to look at these views with a jaundiced and judgemental eye, the more I was able to recognise that the things that had been driving me away from my core religionous beliefs (and define those beliefs) were about the people, not the beliefs. Faith and rationality are not in opposition, and I came out of my period of doubts and questioning with a much stronger faith than I would have had if I had never questioned it to begin with.
Some other areas that contribute to my personal bias include my upbringing on a farm I lovingly describe as being two sticks ahead of the stone age. It is because of these experiences that I can look at the romanticized notions put forward by environmentalists touting "sustainable living" and call them on their bull puckies. I've lived the life so many of them say we should all be living, and while it has much to commend it, and I would love to be able to go back to it, it's not the utopia they make it out to be. Nor is it as sustainable or environmentally sound as they claim, either.
How my parents raised me and my siblings has contributed to my bias. My parents immigrating from Poland to Canada and being proud of both countries is another contribution. Their experiences during WWII and the long term effects that had on them effected me, as well.
My many moves across Western Canada, living in both country and city, has contributed. My being able to travel Canada from coast to coast has played a part. Being a parent has contributed, as have the various parenting choices we've made over the years. Our experiences with our health system, either directly (such as my husband's ongoing health problems and my own need for surgery) or indirectly (through various family members, friends and neighbours) has attributed to my bias.
Knowing I have all these bits and pieces in my life colouring my view on things helps me to step back and examine my reactions to new situations. It also helps me recognise bias in others that they may not recognise in themselves. When visiting a new doctor, does my distrust of the medical system stop me from accepting the advice of a medical professional? Knowing I have that distrust allows me to step back and accept the individual practitioner for what they are. Doing so allows me to go to my own family doctor with full confidence in his abilities, but I will never go back to the specialist that couldn't get past the size and shape of my body. He had his own biases against fat people - biases I'm sure he justified in his own mind - that contributed to his inability to treat me as a patient trying to find out why I've had a chronic cough for nearly a decade, rather than a fat woman who's body fat must somehow be contributing to the problem, despite test after test refuting that notion.
As you read the various postings on the subjects of this blog, realize that I write these with the full recognition of my own biases, and with a ruthless eye to preventing them from drawing inaccurate conclusions from the information, rather than what my personal desires would like to draw. These are my own conclusions (and those of my daughter, as we work on this together) reached through the lens of my personal experiences, research and the level of knowledge I have at this time, with the willingness to accept that I may come across new information that will require me to change my mind. It is that willingness to change my mind - to overcome my biases when they have been proven to be wrong - that has lead to me changing my mind about a number of things I had simply assumed to be true in the past, without really thinking about why I believed them, or questioning the source of those beliefs.
I hope that, as you read these posts, you will be able to do so while aware of your own biases, and to be able to recognise when those biases are either a help or hindrance in your life journey.
