If readers want to gain anything out of columns and editorials, they must attempt to read without bias.

On Feb. 21, NIU alumnus Paul Simanauskas accused me of being a columnist who attacks Christian values. At first, I had no plans to respond to his criticism, but it was apparent it would be a good backdrop for talking about reader bias.

The point of the perspective section is for a columnist to bring his/her unique perspective to any number of social observations or outrages. In turn, the reader’s job is to read the column and come to one of two basic decisions: Has the writer given a worthwhile argument that encourages the reader to change his/her ideas or actions? Or does the writer fail to persuade and only further solidify the reader’s position on the topic in question?

All readers have various biases based on upbringing, education, etc., but there are some biases readers can attempt to avoid. One of the most common types of bias is confirmation bias. According to www.changingminds.org, confirmation bias is “When we have made a decision or build a hypothesis, we will actively seek things which will confirm our decision or hypothesis. We will also avoid things which will disconfirm this. The alternative is to face the dissonance of being wrong.”

For example, if we support a particular viewpoint, we actively search out sources and statistics that also support it. We often ignore any material that is contrary to our view.

If we fall into confirmation bias while reading columns we will not get much out of them. In following this bias, a conservative reader may completely discredit a liberal writer and possibly miss many good ideas he or she has, or vice versa. Many ideas for social change go beyond partisan politics. Readers need to be open to writers who may have different political, religious or other ideological backgrounds. Just because you are right or left does not mean you cannot agree on a more moderate issue.

I was a little shocked to be accused of attacking Christianity. I have written about Christianity on two occasions this semester. My reason for doing so is because I am a Christian and I want to encourage Christians to avoid negative stereotypes.

In one of my columns I stated Christianity should not be exclusive to one political party. The other column stated that Christians should choose to love people before judging them. These two themes were at the heart of my columns. Any negative images I created surrounding Christianity were created in order to encourage Christians to avoid them. To think that they were intended to attack Christianity, one would have had to ignore the main themes and filter out whatever meaning they wanted.

In putting columns through filters of bias, readers ignore any possible good that may be within. There is no reason to read columns if we do not try to approach them without bias. If we filter everything we read with a certain bias, we have no chance of learning anything from those who are different from ourselves.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.