The document discusses confirmation bias and provides examples of being biased. It describes confirmation bias as favoring information that agrees with one's existing beliefs and ignoring alternative possibilities. The author reflects on experiences in secondary school where they showed confirmation bias. In one incident, the author initially took their friend's side in a dispute over missing money without evidence, realizing later they were biased. It was discovered the friend had been stealing items, and the author felt guilt for being biased against the victims and friend's disorder that caused the behavior. These experiences taught the author about the dangers of acting biased and importance of considering multiple perspectives.

1. Journal Entry 4: 19th Oct 2015
Confirmation Bias
The confirmation bias is the tendency to favour information that consists of an
individual’s personal previously existing beliefs while ignoring and giving less
consideration to alternative possible information. Every individual tends to display
such bias when they selectively remember information which are most favourable or
liked by themselves. These matters or situations are interpreted in a biased way which
might cause a person to be ignorance of better possible information. Better possible
pieces of information are usually disregarded when the mind does not agree with the
additional information, even if it is logical and better, because our minds already
consist of an existing belief or bias. Individuals might even seek proof and evidence
to support their belief. In simpler words, confirmation bias is being guided towards a
more favourable piece of information even if it does not have any sense of logical
explanation or reasoning for favouring that matter.
It is obvious that confirmation bias exists all around society. It could be as
simple as a parent treating their youngest child with more attention, having a teacher
pick on you as a student or as unfair as having your boss favour your co-worker by
giving that person more credit when you were the one who managed to accomplish
the hardest part of the job. Nobody can run away from being biased because this
psychological concept exists everywhere on the surface of the earth. In this context,
confirmation bias is usually closely related to stereotyping because stereotypes are
free based opinions that are not based on actual facts. In stereotyping, almost
everything is based on perceptions and impressions of others in your mind. Usually,
stereotypes are categories of people where the characteristics of that group of people
are agreed on. Therefore, confirmation biases can start from stereotyping, leading on
to specific people who you are biased towards. In almost the same manner, biases
occur when perceptions and impressions exist in the mind of an individual. Biases can
be taken in positively, when something is favourable to yourself, or negatively, when
it is unfavourable to yourself.
Before knowing the term “bias”, I used to think that special treatment towards
a specific person was merely being unfair due to the fact that an individual had an
additional liking towards that specific person. Being biased is not only being unfair
but the individual who is acting biased towards a person is able to act unfair without
any specific reason or evidence. In cases where the bias level is higher, there can be
strong reasons to justify why that person is acting biased but that means unfairness
between two individual increases. For example, when two people are in a relationship,
it is normal for the couple to be biased to each other in situations like saving a seat for
your other half or buying a more expensive gift as a present for him or her. However,
in serious cases, some people tend to be biased because of their relationship instead of
looking at things from a more logical point of view. An example which I can think of
is a theft situation where the guy who is part of a relationship with a girl is accused for
stealing from a classmate. The girl defends the guy greatly because he is her
boyfriend and she believes that he would not commit such act. She straightforwardly
ignores the fact that her boyfriend can suddenly afford to pay for more expensive

2. dinners and occasionally buys her flowers. However, in actual fact, the guy did steal
from his classmate but his girlfriend does not point that out because she is partially
blind due to the fact that she is acting biased towards him.
Being bias can affect many in different ways and I have witness many bias
cases throughout my secondary school days. Even if these bias cases does not involve
serious law breaking or caused many people to be offended, it has been part of my
growth and has thought me to look at things differently from different points of view
so that my opinion is not biased towards a person who I am closely related to.
Looking back at a few distant memories on how people have stopped me from
stepping too closely to being biased, I actually can tell the serious consequences
which might have followed up if I had been biased.
In one of my secondary school year, I had 2 close friends until one of them
fought with me over an issue which had eventually led to a broken friendship while
the other friend sided me and stayed by my side. I was always grateful towards the
one who stayed by my side because she was there and believed in me. But most
importantly, being slightly immature back then, I felt that she was my friend because
she was there for me instead of siding the friend who I argued with. From this, we can
see a that my friend was kind of biased towards myself because in a way she was
supportive of me even if there was no solid reason to act that way. At that time, the
three of us were part of a society where the girl I argued with was the treasurer who
had to be responsible for collecting society fees from all members. Not long after we
argued, the money that she collected went missing and there was a huge breakout at
that point of time. The friend who was there for me was the president of the society
and she blamed the treasurer for losing the money out of carelessness. The treasurer
tried to defend for herself saying that it was stolen on purpose, she was not being
careless. For some reason, the blame was suddenly shifted onto the president. I was
very convinced that it was the treasurer who lost the money and I never doubted the
president so I stepped in to say that the president was accused by the treasurer. I
automatically took the president’s side without solid proof and evidence. I was being
biased towards the president because she was my closest friend and she stood by me
when the treasurer and I argued. I must have thought that if she could stand up for me
unconditionally, I could do the same for her too, which has lead me to being biased
unintentionally.
Then came a time where the case had to be settled with confrontations from
teachers. I had to attend that meeting alongside with the president and the treasurer. It
was a meeting where both sides would state their opinion openly and the teachers
would investigate the case on their own later on. My parents and close relatives knew
about this matter and the day before the meeting, they told me to not take sides and to
not be biased towards anyone. It was then when I snapped out and realized that I have
actually been biased all this while. This whole time, it was the president who was
constantly convincing me to believe that it was the treasurer who lost the money. Due
to my previous argument with the treasurer, it affected me in a way whereby I could
not think straight because of the dislike I had towards the treasurer. Taking a step
back made me realize that I have been biased towards the president and was almost
taking her side. What if the treasurer was telling the truth of the money being stolen

3. and not being carelessly left behind? Even if we argued, this was serious work and
being biased would not help solve the matter. This made me realize how horrifying it
could be if I made a mistake of being biased towards the president because there was
no solid proof that the treasurer lost the money. I would have either ended up accusing
the treasurer for losing the money out of carelessness or be accused for siding the
president so much to the extent where I could have been her partner in crime for
stealing the money.
This issue lead to more issues where more items around school went missing.
There were people who suspected the president, who was still my closest friend, for
stealing these items but as a best friend, I honestly still had faith in her and believed
that she was not the culprit. In a way, I was still being biased but after finding out the
truth with solid evidence, I stopped being biased towards her. All this time, she was
the culprit, the one who accused others for stealing when she was the one who
committed the crime. I shifted very quickly, from being biased towards my ex best
friend to siding victims of the theft she did. I stopped talking and interacting with her
and just left her alone to suffer on her own. In a way, I was still being biased. Biased
in a way where I only felt pity for those who were victimized and did not bother to be
concerned about her. Since I was more biased towards the victims, I began to treat her
like an invincible person, I talked bad about her behind her back, and I did all sorts of
things the “victims” did, which were mostly to plot “revenge” back on herself. Later
on, after she changed schools, I found out that she had a psychological disorder which
made her act that way. Guilt engulfed me once again because it was the second time I
made a mistake of acting biased towards a situation and person. It might have been
hurtful when the truth surfaced, but it never meant that I can be biased towards people
who are against her. If I was not biased towards the “victims”, I could have tried to
understand and help her overcome her disorder but I was not able to, because of being
biased in situations where I was not able to look at things from different point of
views.
All this time, I had been biased to the wrong person at the wrong time.
Sometimes, the best is when you have a clear state of mind and do not act biased
towards anyone at all. Acting biased can cause huge misunderstandings because every
assumption made is most likely perception and opinion based. This incident has hit
me very hard and it has taught me the danger of being biased towards someone or
towards an incident. Although confirmation bias is a phenomenon which occurs
frequently in everyday life, it is possible to lower the rate of it effecting your state of
mind by trying to think of things from different aspects, different points of view and
different perspectives in order to full understand an ongoing occurring situation.