The human brain works off cognitive bias. It’s a systematic error in our thinking that affects our daily judgments and decisions. Some of those biases relate to memory and how we remember things.
We may be biased in favour of one person over another, but it’s not something the universe would action, or think right. Cognitive bias is connected to the emotional process and results in us interpreting information from the world around us.
They are a result of our attempts to try to simplify the information we process. We may not always get that right. They are a guide that when used correctly, can help us make sense of the world around us and help us to make judgments and decisions with relative ease, as long as we interpret our memories accurately.
We need to work on judgments and decisions that have gone through an objective and logical lens. If we’re biased, those biases can trip us up and lead us to poor decisions and judgments we wish we hadn’t made.
Social pressures, emotions, individual motivations and limits on how and what we want to remember, all contribute to cognitive bias.
It's a daily struggle for me to deal with this, seeing as I was brainwashed as a kid into having bias against so many people, places and things, so much so that I'm not always aware.
It makes it difficult at times when I'm dealing with the world, where I'm not sure of my bias whether it's from a current issue, or whether it's something from my childhood and that causes me a lot of confusion.
These biases have led me to poor decisions and judgements that I wish I hadn't made. The worst one has kept me paralyzed with a crippling fear that I can't seem to escape from.
It's a situation where I will have to ignore everything I'm thinking and feeling to try to succeed in my quest for freedom, which seems nearly impossible to accomplish.
Thanks Randy. Yes I get that. As we grow up we're continually conditioned to believe and accept things around friends and family.
That's how it is when we're children, through our parents parenting, but as the adult it's up to us to make our own decisions around these biases.
I spent a lot of my early years working things out, so much so that by the time I became an adult, I was more or less aware of every bias.
Over the years and through my blog I have simply chosen not to live my life that way.
We are subject to all sorts of adverse memories and experiences so it's not surprising that we have a built in bias.
Recognising and accepting that we can change those biases means we can stand back and apply objectivity and reason.
Unfortunately, people tend to do the opposite and stick with their prejudice and subjectivity and 'I'm right you're wrong' attitude.
Thank you. Yes, it's a built in bias that comes from our unconscious thinking. The part of the brain we ignore, but the part of the brain we shouldn't be ignoring.
I have seen over the years how biases play out and they don't work. Where we come in with a 'I'm right you're wrong attitude' lives can never change.
We only have to pick up a newspaper or turn on news coverage to see how that works. It doesn't, it simply creates conflict between people.