Being Unbias

I actually learnt this in my Political Science. Since we were dealing with people manipulating symbols, we had to guard ourselves against biases. Now that I do not have anymore politics to study, I found the 4 techniques pretty useful in life. Which is why I'm sharing.

You see, when we're told something by someone, we tend to take in the information either raw or filtered. If the information are filtered, most of the time, only 70% filtered because human mind will always favor what he or she likes. Nothing can limit what a person wants to think or believe except that person him/herself.

Another thing is, one would usually see right in him or herself. For instance, if you had an argument with your mom, you would surely say your mom is the one at fault. But how sure are you? You see, an argument occurs because there's one or more conflicting ideas. So, where do all those conflicting ideas come from?

Reasoned
The first thing you need to consider when there's an argument or when you need to make a decision, is reasoning. Reason is a technique where you make an assumption.

Think of lots of maybes'

For example, when your mom scolds you all of sudden for something you do not understand, make an assumption. Maybe something like, 'Okay, she misunderstood something.' or 'She's in bad mood, I can see.'

I know you might think that if your mom scolds you just because she's in foul mood, certainly she's at fault. Yes, but think about it. If you're in bad mood, you want a release too. The only difference is, your mom is being more irrational by releasing it on you. See, another assumption. The assumption may be wrong, but it definitely make you feel better.

Balance
Balance, to me, is a very important technique whenever you deal with people. Because everyone have different thinking, we cannot run away from this technique. In balance, we were taught to see things from different angles.

I strongly practice this. By the way, the picture above was one of my wallpaper.

Let's say you heard a gossip about yourself circulating in school. And you heard that gossip was started by one of your friends. What do you do? Cut your ties with that friend? Well, maybe but before you do anything irrational, think of why would that friend of yours said such gossip?

Perhaps in his or her opinion, that gossip wasn't wrong. Maybe, in her opinion, she was telling the truth and not a mere gossip. But what she saw was a mistake which makes her true statement a gossip. You might say, well, if it isn't her matter, then don't bother. Like I've mentioned earlier, we can't control a human mind, now can we?

So, in other words, in balance, what may seem right in your eyes might not be the case for another. Look through different perspectives!

Theoretical and Supported with Evidence
The remaining two aren't very applicable but might be useful in certain situations.

Theoretical tells us that not everything in life is an argument. When someone tells you something and you're not pro with it, there's no need for you to correct that person. S/he is just stating her/his opinions. If you did, however, corrected that person with your idea, an argument starts.

The same thing when you're making a decision. When person A tells you that person C is talking shit about you because s/he was jealous of you and person B tells you that person C did so because she wanted to betray you, you don't need to purposely choose one to believe in. They're just stating their opinion or what they heard from some other people. There's no need to support any side of the argument.

Do research before concluding what you think is right.
Don't be surprise when the truth might not turned out what you think it was.

Supported with evidence, well, it's basically about doing a little research before concluding something. This is useful, for me, at least, during shopping, to avoid overspending. LOL. Well, at least I'm no bias towards the things I want to buy or have bought.

They say you only live once. So, live it as you like.
True, but others only live once as well.
So, don't let how you live (making decisions) effect other's life.

The bottom line is, whatever argument there is, whatever decision there is no make, stay neutral. Don't take sides. It'll make your day. Well, at least it works for me :D

Have a nice day!