- Bias
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This article is about different ways the term "bias" is used . For other uses, see Bias (disambiguation).
Bias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of (possibly equally valid) alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.
Contents
In statistics
Main article: Bias (statistics)In judgement and decision making
Main article: Cognitive biasA cognitive bias is the human tendency to make systematic decisions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence. Such biases can result from information-processing shortcuts called heuristics. They include errors in judgment, social attribution, and memory. Cognitive biases are a common outcome of human thought, and often drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. It is a phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology.
In the media
Main article: Media biasMedia bias refers to the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, in the selection of which events and stories are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.
Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts, and the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative (Newton 1989). Since it is impossible to report everything, selectivity is inevitable. Government influence, including overt and covert censorship, biases the media in some countries. Market forces that result in a biased presentation include the ownership of the news source, concentration of media ownership, the selection of staff, the preferences of an intended audience, and pressure from advertisers.
Political bias has been a feature of the mass media since its birth with the invention of the printing press. The expense of early printing equipment restricted media production to a limited number of people. Historians have found that publishers often served the interests of powerful social groups.[1]
Other aspects
- Economic: When People/Government interpret a law/contract in their favor for economic reasons.
- Cultural: interpreting and judging phenomena in terms particular to one's own culture.
- Racism, regionalism and tribalism.
- Inductive bias in machine learning.
- Sexism, homophobia, transphobia and heteronormativity.
- Sensationalist: favoring the exceptional over the ordinary. This includes emphasizing, distorting, or fabricating exceptional news to boost commercial ratings.
- Funding bias in scientific studies.
- Medical bias is also known as a physician having a conflict of interest.[2]
- Biasing or bias in electrical engineering: force applied as a reference level in order to operate a device.
See also
- Prejudice
- Impartiality
- List of cognitive biases
- Scholarly method
- Source criticism
- Weasel word
- Detection theory
- Experimenter's bias
- Social desirability bias
- Political correctness
References
- ^ Ann Heinrichs, The Printing Press (Inventions That Shaped the World), p. 53, Franklin Watts, 2005, ISBN 0-531-16722-4, ISBN 978-0-531-16722-9
- ^ Cain, D.M. and Detsky, A.S. Everyone's a Little Bit Biased (Even Physicians) JAMA 2008;299(24):2893-289.
External links
Biases Cognitive bias Statistical bias Ascertainment bias · Bias of an estimator · Information bias · Lead time bias · Observer bias · Omitted-variable bias · Recall bias · Response bias · Sampling bias · Selection bias · Systematic bias · Systemic biasOther/ungrouped Categories:- Bias
- Critical thinking
- Psychological attitude
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