Essay On Personal Bias

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Our personal beliefs and understandings on a topic have a huge impact on our perceptions of what other people say regarding that same topic. In the same way, these personal biases can lead us to doubt certain statements, or believe sources which we shouldn’t trust, as mentioned in the article “Facebook’s fake news: ‘post-truth’ is the word”. It is very important to first understand that a personal bias is a prejudice in favor or against something, since this shows us that a choice is involved as hinted in the knowledge question. Another important part of this question is the fact that “to what extent” is mentioned, since our decisions are never completely biased and are not always in support of what we favor. We could say that a personal bias …show more content…

It is much easier to change someone’s mind if they have had an opinion on something for a week than if they have believed in something ever since they where a child, like in the case of a faith like religion. In the other hand, memory fades over time and the bias towards whatever we remembered fades with it. It would be a lot easier to convince someone that their gray car was black a decade after they sold it than if we where to try after a week. The severity of a topic is also going to have a huge impact on the scale of the bias since it will have a bigger importance in our minds and the initial decision will be created with a lot more caution making the bias big from the beginning. If a friend steals your pen you will likely end up being that person’s friend again but if your friend steals all your money and burns down your house then your mind is likely to stick with the intention of not becoming their friend again. A personal bias doesn’t only encourage us to not believe a source, it also makes us ignore some, as seen in the case of confirmation bias, where if something counters someone’s belief or opinion, they will chose to just ignore