BY CHERALYN BARRINGTON
Lions’ Pride Staff Writer

When I attended Giving Away Psychology: The Next Big Questions In Psychology presentation given by Dr. Marilyn Mallue and Dr. Leilani Goodmon, I really was not sure what to expect.

However, I am a psychology major, Dr. Goodmon is my advisor, and I wanted to hear what she had to say. I am extremely glad that I attended, because the speech put a lot into perspective for me. The speech explained how society is based around biases that people have, and used specific examples to prove this point, such as how the schools in Islam teach the children that only their religion is truth, and that they should not believe any other. When I put it into perspective, I concluded that from the moment I was born, I began creating biases, as everyone else has also. Something as simple as liking apple flavored baby food over carrot flavored baby food creates a bias. As I grew older I watched specific television shows that I had grown to like, thus creating more biases, and further becoming biased just by being exposed to their subject matter.

Biases can have many negative effects on society. Due to biases, wars are created. Biases prevent people from fully understanding others actions and viewpoints, which can often create tension and controversy. Biases are what start playground bullying and teasing, because children have become biased to think that only one way is acceptable, and anyone that is a little different must be strange. This type of thinking can be psychologically damaging to everyone.

Dr. Mallue spoke of the “confirmation bias” which is “the tendency to only seek out information consistent with your own viewpoint.” When information is inconsistent with this pre-set viewpoint, there is a tendency to ignore, or even reinterpret the information to fit the original viewpoint. This way of thinking causes a selective perception called “tunnel vision.” It is unfortunate that the majority of society bases decisions on their own biases. I do not think that anyone is bias free, but that others opinions should be considered more often.

Currently, psychologists are researching possibilities on how people could become less biased, which could potentially create a wiser society. The speech introduced the concept to me of “meta-cognition” which essentially means “thinking about your thinking.” During the speech Dr. Goodmon pointed out that in Polk County the charter schools are teaching young students to think critically which is what meta-cognition is composed of. That is the type of thinking that is required to become debiased. If children are taught from a young age to be unbiased, then it will become simpler to understand others.

During the speech, the point was made that people are afraid to give up their biases because they feel that doing so would make them lose a part of themselves. I agree that at first, training yourself to think in a different way could potentially be uncomfortable, however, it could provide productive results. Although biases do not always yield negative effects, people would relate better to one another if biases were not such a prominent part of society. Teaching our youth to respect different traditions and viewpoints from their own from a young age could be extremely beneficial in making connections with others.