How has personal bias kept me from making a logical decision in the past? This question is difficult to answer. Bias defined by Oxford Languages is “prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person or group, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” I think these biases feel logical because the underlying beliefs are so deeply ingrained—culturally, morally, and rationally. It’s comparable to overfitting in machine learning: when you train a model too aggressively on a dataset shaped by strong prior beliefs, it captures every noise and idiosyncrasy perfectly, delivering impressive accuracy on the training data. We then mistakenly believe it will perform reliably on new situations, but it fails to generalize because it’s overfitted to the specifics rather than learning the true patterns. Personal bias got this disease. It sees the slightest difference as “other” or “wrong” because it doesn’t fit the norm.

In data science and machine learning, we call it overfitting—a failure of logic (memorizing instead of learning); In Sociology and health care, we call it bias/prejudice—a failure of representation (narrow worldview). Bias happens with a narrow sample and applies it as a “universal rule.” As I compare personal bias to overfitting and realize its similarities, I also realize the value of this analogy between two different fields I’ve studied (or am studying): data science and health care. In data science, to overcome overfitting, we perform regularization. In health care, we overcome bias through cultural competence and awareness.

If I had any personal bias in the past in my decision-making, it was due to my logical preference not because of hate. It was logical. It wasn’t hateful. To demonstrate this, I can give an example of one encounter I had in a public toilet whose belief clearly doesn’t align with mine. Despite of difference, I managed to remain respectful and considerate, even if there’s a political belief that could instantly judge the other person to be “entitled” for using the female toilet. Whichever side you are in, it may be a long debate, and I choose to stick to the middle ground in this encounter for now.

I was in a public toilet in front of a mirror, when he/she/they entered the scene. Dressed as a woman, looked like a man, he/she/they washed his/her/their hand/s. No trace of shock on my face. No annoyance, arrogance or defiance in my nonverbal cue. I acknowledged his/her/their presence. In his/her/their wheelchair/s, he/she/they motioned toward the tissue dispenser just beside me. Immediately, I stepped back to give way to him/her/them. I saw he/she/they was/were physically challenged, and I only felt compassion and neutral treatment toward him/her/them—same feeling as I would do to everyone. I heard his/her/their “Thank you.” I answered, “You’re welcome.”

I have personal bias about gender to be science-based—XY and XX chromosomes, male and female respectively, man and woman only; but I remained culturally competent in this encounter especially seeing a physically challenged person before me.

During a high school exchange students debate on prejudice in the US year 1956, Judith said that Europeans thought Asians were rather lazy when they began their British colonization. Raul Contreras, 16 years old, Filipino, asked Judith about this past prejudice. Although she believed that this impression about Asians was false, Raul shared that the possibility of giving the impression that Asians were lazy was because they would prefer to fan themselves than work under the heat of the sun. Southeast Asian countries and southern parts of South Asia countries mostly are tropical. These include Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. For Judith, they thought they (Brittains) were only trying to be helpful. Raul then asked for the main reason of prejudice. He asked, “Was it mainly due to skin color?” It was an interesting debate among young minds as they wrestled with the issue of prejudice.

CONCLUSION

As far as I can remember, I have not experienced any personal bias that kept me from making a logical decision. In Canada, there is a wide range of people having unique cultures who intermingle with one another. As HCA, I will encounter people from different background, belief system, ethnic, religion, and the list goes on. Cultural competence and awareness must always be observed to be exceptional in caring for those who are elderly, physically and mentally challenged, vulnerable, and disconnected people. As HCA, we do not impose our cultural belief and practices on others. We are paid to provide compassionate, person-centered care at all times.