1. Bias
Rachel Parent

2. How is bias created?
Bias: prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
Bias is created by many different factors. One factor is the environment. If a child grows up in a loving, caring, and supporting environment, they will grow up to be more tolerant. That means they will be open to different views and will have less bias than a child who grows up in a harsh, strict, and cruel environment. Another factor is opinion. Most people like people who are like themselves. Therefore, when a person has even the slightest difference from yourself, that may be the only thing you notice about them. You may not notice they love animals, just like you. Or are allergic to peanuts, just like you. All of that is ignored because of a simple difference. Another factor could be experiences. You may think better or worse of someone or something because of how you reacted with it in the past. Maybe you drank sour chocolate milk one time. Now you think all kinds of milk are bad because of that one experience. That’s how a bias is formed.

3. Twelve Angry Men
When someone’s life is in your hands, you would want to take time to discuss the situation, right? To some jurors, that question would mean nothing because it’s a waste of their precious time. To other jurors, the answer would be yes no matter what. After a long day of bickering, bias starts to show, and it’s clear who really cares and who doesn’t.
“‘This better be fast. I’ve got tickets to The Seven Year Itch tonight’” (3). -Juror 7

4. Bias and Babies
60 Minutes did an experiment testing whether or not babies are born with biases. Here’s the results:
The babies liked the nicer puppet.
The babies also liked the mean dog puppet because it punished the bad bunny puppet.
Babies have a “built-in bias.”
The Babies chose puppets who liked the same foods they did, and liked when the puppets that didn’t like the same foods they did were treated badly. Therefore the babies prefered when others unlike them were punished.
Babies supposedly aren’t taught to hate, but “born to hate.”
Young kids chose less for themselves just to get more than the other kid. This is called “social comparison.”
kids around 8 years old chose a more fair option, where they get the same amount as the other kid.
9-10 year old kids deliberately chose less for themselves and more for the other kid.
The older the kid gets, the more fair, generous, and educated they become.
Bias is your instinct and never goes away.
Bias is still in adults who are fighting it today.
Babies should be more respected, as for they have altruism, justice, selfishness, bigotry, and kindness all stuffed into them.

5. My Book Choice: Wonder by R.J. Palacio
So far in my book, I’ve discovered multiple biases:
“The Plague” is a game Auggie’s classmates play, where if you accidentally touch August, you only have 30 seconds to wash your hands before you catch “The Plague.” Simply because August’s face is different from their own, his classmates assume he has a contagious disease.
“‘I feel ordinary, but I know ordinary kids don't make other kids run away screaming in playgrounds.’” Kids think August is mean and scary without even meeting him, just because of his face.
“‘I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.’"

6. How Do We Overcome It?
Bias is almost like an addiction. Once you start having a bias, it’s really difficult to stop. So when you’re trying to overcome a bias, you first have to learn more about whatever’s causing your bias. For example, if you have a bias that all ice cream is bad, you should look up the ingredients to the one that gave you the bias and try other ice creams with different ingredients. Second, you must forget the opinions and experiences you’ve had with the thing that causes your bias. This will give you a clean slate with the person, group, thing, etc. that you had a bias on. Third, you have to get to know the thing better. Again, if you thought all ice cream is bad, you shouldn’t just try it once, but try it over and over in case one time it was just freezer burnt. If you follow these steps with your biases, you’ll be sure to overcome them!