Month: March 2020

I am well aware that COVID-19 is probably the last topic people want to either hear or read about, but I think it is important to put the national panic we are currently facing into perspective. Obviously, it is reasonable to be scared about a highly infectious disease that we currently have no cure for, but the hysteria surrounding COVID-19 has been out of proportion for what it is actually is. I am not talking about people practicing social distancing and events such as sporting events and concerts being cancelled, these are reasonable measures being taken to lower the potential of infection. Instead, I am specifically talking about overbuying, the stock market crashing and the alleged racism Chinese people are facing as a result of this virus starting in Wuhan. Social distancing is rational and productive, overbuying and racism is not.

In an editorial for the New York Times, Psychologist David DeSteno attributes the extreme response to COVID-19 as an example of availability bias. Essentially, people are so scared over this virus because it is all they see. Virtually every news outlet discusses COVID-19 nearly every time they are on air and because of this, people are interpreting this virus to be way more catastrophic to society than it really is. Constantly seeing a threat to ourselves makes us want to protect ourselves, but this is being taken to extremes and creating a positive feedback loop aiding the paranoia of COVID-19. Examples of this have been seen online, as pictures were posted of shoppers buying an exorbitant amount of food, toilet paper and supplies such as Purell and face masks. It is not bad to be prepared, but buying so many products essential for people to survive deprives others of said essentials. This overbuying has forced people to travel other places to get food and toilet paper and led to a shortage of face masks for medical professionals, which can both lead to the spread of the virus people are trying to protect themselves against.

Finally, the racism component Chinese people are facing. In the middle of a global problem, the last thing countries need to do is pointing fingers. The natural psychological response for a collective hardship is to search for a reason or entity to blame. However instead of this, we should be promoting cooperation via supplies and research sharing rather than focusing on how to punish China at the moment. To be transparent, I do not think the President calling COVID-19 the Chinese Virus is contributing to this unrest. It has been proven that the virus originated in China due to the lack of regulation on Wet Markets by their government. Furthermore, there is already another pandemic named about a nationality, the Spanish Flu. So personally, I do not think calling it the Chinese Virus is causing racist sentiment towards Chinese people. Regardless, China has permanently banned the use of Wet Markets, and as a result we should be fighting our natural response of blaming them and demanding they see consequences and should instead be focusing on fighting the virus which is ravaging our society.

Disclaimer: We know very few concrete aspects about dreams and dreaming, the information present in this blog is primarily theories placed forward by a combination of psychiatrists and scientists.

Despite popular belief, all babies and adults alike dream multiple times on average for 2 hours a night. A person claiming that they do not dream is not true, rather they simply do not remember their dreams when they wake up in the morning. Scientists theorize that this is due to the rapid shift the brain undergoes from transitioning from dreaming to waking up. Specifically, the portion of the brain responsible for memory is believed to be largely inactive during sleep, explaining why 95% of dreams are forgotten. But why do we dream in the first place? Theories range from claims that dreams are an essential cognitive function that help people work through stress and emotions, while others state that dreams are a meaningless phenomena that occurs during sleep just because it does. Below are 3 of the most popular theories by psychoanalysts, scientists and sleep experts.

Sigmund Freud championed the theory that dreams are a result of an individual’s personality. He stated that dreams are a result of one’s emotional, aggressive and sexual desires not being expressed in reality. As a result, these unexpressed feelings are presented in dreams because they have nowhere else to go.

Another theory popular among experts is that dreams are the brain’s way of processing information experienced in everyday life. The logic is that our brains are wholly stimulated during waking hours, and thus our brains are unable to react and process all of the information that it takes in during this time. Because of this, our brain uses dreams to further process thoughts.

The final theory I want to present is the one that I personally think is the most probable. The theory states that dreams essentially “clean up” stray thoughts from the brain, and serve to refresh the mind for when it wakes up. I believe in this theory due to the often random scenarios that dreams present. I think that dreams are reactionary thoughts to stimuli faced during waking hours that are not thought about in the moment. I think that dreams are thoughts that we did not necessarily think in the moment, and are released during sleep to clear these thoughts out and reset the brian for the next morning. Comment which of the three theories presented you believe in, and if you have your own theory on why we dream, let me know!

In physcology, there are a multitude of forms of bias that occur on a daily basis, far too many to discuss in this blog post alone. Because of this, I want to focus on the 2 main forms of biases that can occur during job interviews. We will all be faced with a job interview at some point in our lives, and it is important to know about some factors that can either help or hurt your chances of impressing an interviewer.

Firstly, the affinity bias. The definition of affinity bias is a simple concept to grasp, job interviewers look more favorably upon interviewees who they have an affinity for. This can include being from the same hometown, being in the same fraternity or sorority, or having a mutual friend. Interviewees who obtain the affinity of an interviewer are more likely to set themselves apart from other applicants and as a result, have a higher probability of being hired. While people cannot control what hometown they are from, they can control the kinds of organizations they are involved in. Organizations such as business fraternities often advertise the networking opportunities that come with membership, and there is truth to this as this can increase the chances of activating the affinity bias in a job interview.

Secondly, the Halo and Horns effect. These two forms of bias are inverses of each other, and pertain to how an interviewer views a interviewee based on their demor or resume. The Halo Effect is when an interviewer’s judgement of a person is clouded by a particular positive achievement or attribute. For example, if an interviewee’s resume states that they went to Harvard, the interviewer assumes that the candidate is smarter and better qualified than others, even if this is not the case. As a result, the Halo Effect makes interviewers become blind to other important factors such as experience or temperament. Conversely, the Horns Effect is when an interviewee displays one bad trait or attribute that interviewers are unable to overlook. An example being if an interviewee has a bad credit score, an interviewer will assume the person is not trustworthy, regardless of the context. Because of this, it is important to make sure there is nothing in your resume that could activate the Horns Effect, otherwise your chances of being hired are much lower.

In conclusion, the best way to decrease the negative form of bias that can occur during a job interview is to ensure that there are as many qualifications as possible to trigger the affinity bias and no actions that could trigger the Horns Effect. Joining networking organizations and taking internships could all increase the probability of an interviewer forming an affinity for a candidate. While having a criminal record could cause the interviewer to trigger the Horns Effect rather than the Halo Effect. Job interviews are more complicated than they seem, and having a strong, qualified resume is the best way to reduce any form of negative bias.