The Saint Chronicles

Friday, April 06, 2007

"Cher, you are biased!"

Haven't we all heard that before?

I checked up the faithful online Longman and I was pleasantly surprised by my discovery. Here's how the vocabulary folks define the word:

1) unfairly preferring one person or group over another:
Of course I'm biased, but I thought my daughter's paintings were the best.

racially biased attitudes

biased against/towards/in favour of
news reporting that was heavily biased towards the government

2) more interested in a particular thing than in another

biased towards
The majority of infants are biased towards being social rather than being antisocial.

My intuition was right. The word is presented both in the postive and negative light. Do indulge me in this train of thought after you have blurted out the comment so loudy in class, some very rudely I might add?

What is your favourite sport? Why do you choose say, soccer, over squash? Regarding that latest "Linkin Park" CD you have just bought - what made you decide not to pick "Fall Out Boy"'s offering? You are hungry and it is recess time. The queues at the Muslim stall and the one selling pizzas are always long. How about the time you sneaked into the auditorium screening "300" instead of heading to watch "Mr Bean's Holiday" which you had bought the tickets to - did you realise that it was an unlawful favourite choice?

When we are biased towards our favourite food or sources of entertainment, we are indirectly biased against the choices we reject simultaneously.

So is it wrong to be bias?

Let's admit it. All of us have our favourites and we feel good indulging in them. That makes us all biased creatures of habit.

So when is being biased frowned upon? It becomes obvious when you are not the chosen one for the class committee or to help the coolest teacher wash her car. The result? We protest and kick up a storm. We want justice done and call upon all the deities to aid us in our most evil schemes of revenge against the chosen one and the `choose-r' (whom we think has absolutely bad taste). In other words, when our feelings, or shall we say, ego, is hurt in Darwin's natural selection process, the other party is "biased".

In my opinion, the `choose-r' does err when she is openly biased. While many of us can openly declare our favourites, the situation becomes worse for those of us in positions of authority and honour. We have to be careful to uphold fairness over our subservient minders. Yes, even our parents err once in awhile over this. I'm sure you have had a similar experience.

I can think of one situation when the two faces of biasness, like two sides of a coin, work well for some of you out there. Imagine casting your eyes over the group of girls and jackpot! You zoomed in on your favourite, walk up to her and make your opening speech. In your mind, her girlfriends are smitten with envy. With glassy eyes, they coyly cry out, "Why you biased against us?" You wink that suave gesture and deep inside, you love all the attention showered upon you.

So you think you are not - biased?

stan
UPDATED @ 2:06 AM

----------------