Bias

Father and son are involved in a terrible car accident. The father dies instantly and the son is in critical condition.

The son is rushed to hospital and prepared for life-saving surgery. The surgeon walks in, sees the patient and exclaims: “I cannot operate on this boy, this boy is my son!”

Who is this surgeon?

Take some time to consider all the possible solutions to this question.

• Maybe this boy looks a lot like the surgeon’s son?
• Maybe the surgeon is the adoptive father?
• The surgeon could be homosexual and the second father?

Do you know the answer?

A bias is an opinion that is not based on facts. And everyone has bias, or prejudices. In order to respond quickly, our brain simply uses stereotypes to assess people and situations.