It's a nice warm day and the smell of fresh grass fills your nostrils as you walk towards the car to drive to work. Your neighbor's poodle dashes from across the street and starts rolling on the ground demanding attention. You start rubbing the dogs belly and playing with him until you realize that you're already 10 minutes late and better leave for work. You leave for work with a smile.

Outside it's cold and rainy. It's July and the sun seems to have taken a vacation and went to Madeira. You walk to the car and the poodle runs from across the street splashing in the puddle next to your feet. He rolls on the ground demanding attention but instead of feeling like patting it your first instinct is to kick it away and head straight to work.

Have you ever felt like the dog in this situation? One morning you're greeted with rubs and cuddles and the next morning you do exactly the same thing and get kicked? Why do we sometimes perceive things positively, and other times we perceive the same thing negatively?

I'm calling that undefined something that alters our perception of an event the bias visor. The bias visor can be mood, state of mind, level of stress, internal turmoil, internal peace, etc. I choose the visor analogy because this mental state works like a visor. It's like a screen (visor) that alters (biases) the perception of a neutral event to make it positive or negative. Neutral events are events that aren't logically positive like winning the lottery or logically negative like the death of someone.

Interactions between lovers are probably the best way to observe what I’m talking about. Have you ever been in an argument with your sweetheart and all of a sudden behaviour that she used to like starts annoying her? For example, say you've got a peculiar way to use vocabulary to describe situations. When the bias visor is in positive mode this is seen as funny and amusing, but when the visor is in negative mode it is seen as stupid and illiterate. The action, misusing words, is the same, but the reaction is positive or negative depending on the bias of the visor.

Knowing about the existence of the bias visor gives us a way of understanding people's reactions better. I think that when the presence of a bias visor is evident, identifying the real nature of the visor gives us insight on what the real problem is. Take the previous example of the vocabulary misuse. Imagine all of a sudden your better half starts complaining about your vocabulary. Then the habit of fitting the toilet paper roll the other way round starts annoying her. Then you're scolded because you placed the toothbrush mug on the left side of the sink instead of on the right. All these events are considered generally innocuous and relatively unimportant, but if all of a sudden they start seeming important and negative it's evident that a negative bias visor is affecting the judgment of the situation. The real cause of the problem is not the action itself but something deeper.

There are a million different reasons why somebody is affected by a bias visor. I believe that there are so many possible causes that it's best not to try and guess what they are. The best way to tackle the situation is to discuss it, and ask what the problem is. This way there's a greater chance of identifying the real reason behind one's interpretation of events consequently avoiding the risk of misinterpretations and misjudgments. Sometimes however the biased person might not know what the reason is, or else the person doesn't feel like talking about it. In this case I think the best option is to let it pass gradually and give the person space and time.

What do you think about this topic? Can you add some examples of the bias visor in action? I'm sure that what I'm talking about here is something that was discussed by psychologists at some time. If anybody knows the proper terminology for what I'm talking about then I'd be very grateful for a comment.