The other day, I saw a news article about a fire at one of Australia’s oil distilleries. Half-jokingly, I sent a message to a friend saying that, while I’m not a conspiracy theorist, the timing of the fire seemed pretty wild.

He replied saying it was probably more likely that operations had increased rather than anything suspicious — and that what I was noticing was probably Apophenia.

The human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns or connections in unrelated events. A cognitive bias.

I was immediately a bit taken aback. I try very hard not to be biased. And if I’m honest, the comment hit my sense of self more than I expected it to.

These days, bias feels like a dirty word. Something negative. Something harmful. Something we should be above.

So, I found myself sitting with it for a while afterwards. And eventually, I realised something uncomfortable but probably true: I do have biases. Sometimes I read meaning into things that may not be there. Sometimes I project my own thinking or assumptions onto situations or people without fully realising it.

And maybe the issue isn’t whether we have biases at all. Maybe the issue is whether we can see them when they appear.

As uncomfortable as it was in the moment, I’m actually glad he pointed it out.

Because being unaware of our biases is probably far more dangerous than having them in the first place.