Diminishing Bias and Developing New Perspectives
It is known that all humans have biases and biases can unconsciously affect how we behave.
Bias. Bias is the vocabulary that pretty much rings the bell among UX professionals. When we want to find the root cause of the problem before coming up with the correct solution we need to stay open-minded to new possibilities and when doing user interviews we must not lead the participants to respond in a particular way. However, the reality is humans are creatures of experience. We all have values that influence our decision-making. Our environment, culture & family upbringing shape how we perceive the world.
This happened to me as well when I was having a conversation with my friend, I said to her I was not interested in reading Jane Austen since I don’t read romantic novels and she replied:
“Don’t be biased, make an effort to read something else other than the genre you’re into”.
My friend is right and the fact that I don’t read romantic novels is because I already have a limited perception of the romance category, and guess what? turns out, that Jane Austen’s works are not what I have assumed all this time.
It can be a challenge to acknowledge our prejudice as we all have egos and being right gives us a sense of security and comfort. But is our perception entirely valid? How can we overcome our own biases? It may be tough but here are some activities we can do to broaden our perspectives (and get creative)
Read Various Books
I love to read but I know that I need to read books across genres, or something let’s say completely different from what I usually pick up from my shelves.
I would say reading fiction is great for learning about people’s backgrounds and situations. Fiction tells a story and a story can be full of human emotion, it can guide us about one’s journey like how the character interacts with one another or what the character’s goals are, and why the antagonist in the story behaves in certain ways. Moreover, reading a book about history can help us to get to know different cultures,
Aside from reading books, we can try to read articles to look for facts and data
Watch Unpopular Films
I guess most of us watch films, at least, we want to watch the show to see our favorite actors or because it’s our favorite genre. But, why not watch something different? For instance, when you are into documentary films, try to watch The Hobbit. Or maybe a movie that you know nothing about at all. Letterboxd is a great source to browse for references.
Keep Meeting New People and Listen to Their Stories
Yes, I know, this can be annoying for some people. I am an introvert and I don’t like talking with people all the time. But meeting new people especially people who do not think like us can challenge our POV and beliefs. Get excited to engage with different group members
We can start by listening to their stories without involving our past and personal values (yes, it takes practice and take some time). We can try not to meet the same type of people, get acquainted with people who are different from us or join a community to widen our social circles with more various individuals
Look for Different Hobbies
Who doesn’t like to do their hobbies? We all have hobbies and some of us tend to stick with those hobbies. Before I took a Yoga class, I had always told myself that I was not interested in Yoga. Before I took the Junk Journaling workshop, I saw that as something that I would not do as a hobby, but guess what now I got hooked by Captain Hook (just kidding). Now I can’t stop browsing for Junk Journal supplies, What I learned from this is that do not assume too quickly if we feel like we have no interest.
Wrapping up
Doing different activities and hobbies can open new opportunities as well as widen our standpoint. However, acknowledging our bias in the first place is the initial step to open up to new ideas.
We are creatures of experience we judge based on our values. This is why it can be challenging to see from a different point of view. But we can overcome this by staying open-minded while strict with our values.
It is impossible to be completely free from bias, and that is normal. Admitting our biases is the first step to seeing from a different angle….
