Before reading this page, you might want to check out my Views On Other Artists

When an issue arrises, this is something you might do: You jump immediately to what you know(Or think you know)is the right explanation, giving little or no thought to the possibilty of other answers. The Earth is round? Of course not, it's always been flat, every sign and experiment leads to the conclusion that it is and always will be...unless it's not. Is Chris married? Of course he is, there's absolutely no evidence of him not being married. After intensive research on my part, it has been concluded without a doubt that Chris is...oh wait, he's not?

(People who don't suffer from confirmation bias generally make better scientists, because of their ability to see things in all lights, regardless of the "facts" presented or their personal knowledge.)

So what does this have to do with the pop phenomenon? Plenty, really...as with the example given above, it can differenciate the lines between many of the things we do in support of our favorite musicians. Let's look at some of the more obvious circumstances, most of which I am also partial to(Yeah, I'm quite guilty of this condition too, how do you think I know so much about it?:)). Note that all these are hypotheses; Not all of the following conditions are caused by confirmation bias, and not everyone suffers from these conditions.

By now you're probably very confused. How can you be biased towards a group that you like? Technically, very easily. Though it's often not a bad thing, actually; Sometimes being biased is what makes a fan in the first place.

Whenever an ignorant individual says stuff like, "Oh *NStink is just another boyband, they've got no talent, they lipsynch!" what do you as their faithful fan immediately say in retaliation? "You ******* ******* they're not just another ******* boyband they've separated themselves from that genre, they do not ******* lipsynch, they've got real talent I'd like to see you do what they do, you ******** *** piece of ******************************!!!" With less vehemence, maybe, but as their fan you would support *NSYNC forever no matter what anyone else says. As a fan, you know *NSYNC, they don't. And you know that *NSYNC is the best thing to happen to '90s music. You know.

Or when an issue arises against the guys, like some dumb woman suing Joey for being the father of her four-year-old, what do you as a true fan automatically think and declare? You obviously would not believe it, citing it as another failing attempt to defame the guys. You as a fan will present the facts as you know it: "Joey would never do something like that. Despite whatever the heck many people strive to believe, at heart he's a wonderful and responsible person. Besides, he's gonna father my child!"(Okay, maybe not that last one:P...) It's what a true fan of the guys, who respects and has total faith in them but also recognizes their vulnerablity as human beings, would do.

Surprisingly, both of those scenarios are examples of confirmation bias at work. Now remember, I've said before and I must stress again that this isn't necessarily a bad thing...c. bias is just the idea that you stick fiercely by what you know and will not give credence to opinions contradicting such. When that loser insulted *NSYNC, you didn't give a flying fart about what he thinks, only that you are right and he is wrong. When you heard what happened to Joey, you had no sympathy for the woman's side of the story, only the fact that you support Joey 100%. To you, your opinions are right, theirs is wrong, end of story. And to you, you have the adequet knowledge to disprove them, they don't have any claims to disprove you. As much of a cool *NSYNC fan that makes you, the ultimate end is that you are being biased. But as said and must be stressed again, in this instance it is not that horrible of a thing; It's what being a fan of someone is all about; I mean, it'd suck if you didn't jump immediately to *NSYNC's support, instead actually hearing out and paying attention to what those losers had to say, you know?

And it can go the other way too; If you were the one saying that *NSYNC is great, and the other guys immediately dismisses you with a "Whatever, they're all dumb***es!" then he's the one who's disregarding your opinions and sticking fiercely to what he knows as true(Okay, it is my personal opinion that people who say *NSYNC is stupid are just trying to be cool or smart@$$es or bad@$$es whatever other type of @$$; It's not like they actually went out and did research on the stupidity of *NSYNC, so they don't actually know, they're just saying it).

Confusing, ain't it:)? I mean, according to this, basically whatever the heck we do, basically anything we do or say in support of whatever is a bias. Where does it end, dangit, where does it end!? Gasp gasp pant. The thing about this is, as with about anything else, is to be open-minded. Sure, go psychotic when someone disses your Poofoo. Because *NSYNC rocks beyond whatever, we as fans can hardly be expected to go and check our opinions of them whenever someone speaks badly of them, which unfortunately happens very often.

We are constantly being biased, whether for better or worse, there's nothing we can do about it. But just keep an open mind, and it's all good.

I guess I've always been a little biased towards Britney...again, for better or for worse. In all generality I support her and would quote *NSYNC's praises of her whenever someone spoke too badly of her...now I wonder if that wasn't just my own little positive biases. Could someone be too supportive of someone despite their very apparent flaws? I don't know...I'm not a big fan, and I don't like thinking that I had a set way of thinking about Britney...it sometimes takes away from the fun of bashing her:). Especially with the recent turn of VMA...exposure:P...it's got me thinking.

Likewise, as with *NSYNC, many people are often confirmationally biased against her, refusing to listen to any logic that she isn't as bad as they think. That's their choice, of course, but my personal one is to always look for the better qualities in people. Better to be biased for someone than be biased against, right?

And then there wa that whole thing with Justin...you all got your own beliefs about it and most likely wouldn't change it based on evidence provided by another person. Is she good for him? Bad? Who cares!?

Just connects to the above two...I've always been supportive of what this girl wanted, but I'd hate to be the type of person who's all, "Christina's great and that's all there is to it!" That's not all there is to it. Yeah, she's got style, but with that also comes very obvious imperfections. I sometimes wish I were more objective and not quite as positive when dealing with musicians. I tend to stress the good things about her while disregarding the bad...

This is an extreme case. We've all taken a part in it, this battle between the two. But what I'm noticing more and more on both sides is the occurance of c.bias. That is, we grew so much attuned to *NSYNC's fanbase and point of view that whatever they said and did, we assumed that they were in the right(Or we twisted their words to make it seem like they were right). Likewise, whatever the Backstreet Boys did, we would automatically go against it(Or we would distort their words/actions until it seems like they're wrong). I don't want to be like that; Yeah, I wanna be a fan and be totally supportive of *NSYNC, and certainly even now I am more accustomed to following their views than the Backstreets', even now I think that *NSYNC is in the right. But I don't wanna have to look at everything the Boys do and automatically think it's wrong and evil. That'd be biased of me:)

For me at least, this is also an extreme case. Even now my views on O-Town are basically negative; No, this isn't the result of any biases, I actually do watch Making the Band and have formed my own opinions, which were negative. But I will admit that when I first saw it, my initial reaction was that of negativity, due to the presence of Lou Pearlman(Who, btw, I will be forevermore biased against no matter what anyone says)and the views *NSYNC themselves had expressed about this(Purely negative). I saw what happened to *NSYNC, I heard what they had to say about the show, and then I basically watched it with an air of "You guys are losers, that's all you'll ever be, and that's all I'll ever think of you," which isn't particularly fair in retrospect.

Well yeah, you could argue that this instance of confirmation bias isn't totally my fault; Fat Bastard brought all these biases and stereotypes upon himself and his band with what he did. It would only be natural for anyone to look at previous instances of his doings and make judgements according to such; It's how we as human beings grow, become smarter, more mature. But I still have to take into account the idea that I'm judging other people here...and one does have to be more open-minded when it comes to other people. The next time they appear, I'll try and steel myself to not only look at what I think I know as their flaws, but also what others present as their strengths. Actually, I tried doing this several times already, didn't seem to work yet(But that doesn't mean I should stop trying!).

You know what's interesting? There actually isn't that much of a bias issue when it comes to controversial stuff like Eminem. Oh yeah, there's an obvious distinction between his fans and his enemies, sure. But people who hate him agree that he has a nack for writing, and people who like him admit that there should be a limit to what he says; An argument like Eminem's controversy is so big yet so vaguely interpreted, it's very possible to see things in various lights. It's almost like a political issue. You can't very well decide until you've got a taste of the other side, and if the other side's convincing, then all the more difficult to decide.

I am pretty much decided in my view of Eminem as being a menace to society, but that's only because I personally have very defined and set views on morality itself. When someone actually goes and sits in a room to think of words that rhyme with "fag" that he can put into his songs...my personal morals speak against that, no matter how much liberty he is entitled to. So while I'm not biased confirmationally, I have a set way of thinking about Eminem that comes from a more personal side.

But other people are more undecided. People encourage artistic liberty, but shy from this firm belief when Em actually takes that liberty in the extreme. People love how real he is, but are more reticent about it when confronted with how his lyrics very obviously attack personal beliefs. This isn't confirmation bias; In fact it may very well be the opposite. This is hypocrisy(Instead of saying something and disregarding any other opinions on the matter, they are instead saying things that they don't believe all the way).

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