How Does Bias Affect Society

When people think about today’s issues, prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination most likely come to mind. These three things come together to create bias, or the way people view a certain thing. But how exactly is bias created? Bias can be affected by the country you live in, the ideas of others you interact with, and the popular belief of society. Bias can be created when a misconception about others is spread throughout society and then is made into a collective belief. For example, in the 19th and 20th century, it was a societal misconception that African Americans were less smart and capable than their Caucasian counterparts. The impact of bias in society and the individual are different. Bias can affect whole societies by setting a mentality into the minds of the people, for example the popular belief that something is ‘good’ and another is ‘bad.’ Individuals can be affected by bias by the people they associate with, such as parents, friends,

One example is Portia’s inability to choose who she marries because she’s a woman. Portia refers to this topic in Act 1 Scene 2, where she says: " I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father." This shows that the issue of Women’s equality has been going on since at least Shakespeare’s time, and is still a topic that is discussed quite often. The biggest example of bias in The Merchant of Venice is the treatment of Shylock, a Jew living in a Christian society that looks down on Jews, treating them as scum, and as if a Jew were less of a person than a Christian. Shylock says in Act 3, Scene 1: “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian