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Bias
 
 
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Bias is a term used to describe a tendency
Tendency

The word tendency is often used by left-wing groups for an organized unit or political faction within the group. It may also refer to:* Bleeding tendency...
 or preference
Preference

Preference is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics. It assumes a real or imagined "choice" between alternatives and the possibility of rank ordering of these alternatives, based on happiness, satisfaction, gratification, enjoyment, utility they provide....
 towards a particular perspective
Perspective (cognitive)

Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a wiktionary:context or a reference from which to sense, categorize, Measurement or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another....
, ideology
Ideology

An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society....
 or result, especially when the tendency interferes with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective
Objectivity (science)

"[A]n objective account is one which attempts to capture the nature of the object studied in a way that does not depend on any features of the particular subject who studies it....
. The term biased is used to describe an action, judgment, or other outcome influenced by a prejudged perspective. It is also used to refer to a person or body of people whose actions or judgments exhibit bias.






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Bias is a term used to describe a tendency
Tendency

The word tendency is often used by left-wing groups for an organized unit or political faction within the group. It may also refer to:* Bleeding tendency...
 or preference
Preference

Preference is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics. It assumes a real or imagined "choice" between alternatives and the possibility of rank ordering of these alternatives, based on happiness, satisfaction, gratification, enjoyment, utility they provide....
 towards a particular perspective
Perspective (cognitive)

Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a wiktionary:context or a reference from which to sense, categorize, Measurement or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another....
, ideology
Ideology

An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society....
 or result, especially when the tendency interferes with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective
Objectivity (science)

"[A]n objective account is one which attempts to capture the nature of the object studied in a way that does not depend on any features of the particular subject who studies it....
. The term biased is used to describe an action, judgment, or other outcome influenced by a prejudged perspective. It is also used to refer to a person or body of people whose actions or judgments exhibit bias. In this context, the term "biased" is often used as a pejorative
Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
.

Psychology of bias

In psychology, cognitive bias
Cognitive bias

A cognitive bias is a person's tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors, and is a phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology....
 is bias based on cognitive factors. One type of cognitive bias is confirmation bias
Confirmation bias

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions and to avoid information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs....
, the tendency to interpret new information in such a way that confirms one's prior beliefs, even to the extreme of denial
Denial

Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence....
, ignoring information that conflicts with one's prior beliefs. The fundamental attribution error
Fundamental attribution error

In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error reflects our erroneous cognitive tendency to predominantly over-value dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for the observed behaviors of others, thus under-valuing or unacknowledging the potentiality of situational attributions or situational explanations for the behav...
, also known as "correspondence bias", is one example of such bias, in which people tend to explain others' behavior in terms of personality, whereas they tend to explain their own behavior in terms of the situation.

Types of biases

  • Cultural
    Cultural bias

    Cultural bias is when someone is biased due to his or her culture. The alleged problem of cultural bias is sometimes said to be central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology and sociology....
    : interpreting and judging phenomena in terms particular to one's own culture.
  • Ethnic or racial
    Racism

    Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
    : racism
    Racism

    Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
    , nationalism
    Nationalism

    Nationalism refers to an ideology, a feeling, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all Expert accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a Modernity phenomenon originating in Europe....
    , regionalism
    Regionalism (politics)

    Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international trade . It refers to the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular identity and shape collective action within...
     and tribalism
    Tribalism

    The internal social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but, due to the small size of tribes, it is always a relatively simple structure, with few significant social distinctions between individuals....
    .
  • Geographical: describing a dispute as it is conducted in one country, when the dispute is framed differently elsewhere.
  • Inductive
    Inductive bias

    The inductive bias of a learning algorithm is the set of assumptions that the learner uses to predict outputs given inputs that it has not encountered ....
  • Media
    Media bias

    Media bias is a term used to describe the reality and perception bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, in the selection of which events will be reported and how they are covered....
    : real or perceived bias of journalist
    Journalist

    A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that aren't biased....
    s and news
    NeWS

    NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S....
     producers within the mass media
    Mass media

    Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a mainstream such as the population of a nation state....
    , in the selection of which events will be reported and how they are covered
  • Gender
    Gender

    Gender comprises a range of differences between man and woman, extending from the biological to the social. Biologically, the male gender is defined by the presence of a Y-chromosome, and its absence in the female gender....
    : including sexism
    Sexism

    Sexism, a term coined in the late 20th century, refers to the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other....
     and heteronormativity
    Heteronormativity

    Heteronormativity is a term describing the marginalization of non-heterosexual lifestyles and the view that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation....
    .
  • Linguistic
    Linguistic

    Linguistic may mean:*pertaining to language**specifically, pertaining to natural language*pertaining to the field of linguistics...
    : bias, favoring certain languages
  • Political: bias in favor of or against a particular political party, philosophy, policy or candidate.
  • Corporate: bias in favor of a business.
  • Advertising
    Advertising

    Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
    : bias with observations motivated for selling an opinion rather than using objectivity.
  • Sociological: bias in favor of a society's ideals. bias for groups needs/wants.
  • Entertainment
    Entertainment

    Entertainment is an activity designed to give people pleasure or relaxation. An audience may participate in the entertainment passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games....
    : bias in favor of entertaining an audience
  • Personal
    Personal

    Personal means "of or pertaining to a person, or belonging to a person in some way", for example:* Hygiene#Personal hygiene* Personal identity...
    : bias for personal gain.
  • Religious
    Religion

    A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
    : bias for or against religion, faith or beliefs;
  • Sensationalist
    Sensationalism

    Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely controversial, loud, or attention grabbing. It is especially applied to the emphasis of the unusual or atypical....
    : favoring the exceptional over the ordinary. This includes emphasizing, distorting, or fabricating exceptional news to boost commercial ratings.
  • Scientific (including anti-scientific
    Antiscience

    Antiscience is a position critical of science and the scientific method. People holding antiscientific views are generally skeptical that science is an Objectivity method, as it purports to be, or that it generates universality knowledge....
     and scientific skepticism
    Scientific skepticism

    Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism , sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a scientific or practical, epistemology position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence....
    ): favoring (or disfavoring) a scientist, inventor, or theory for non-scientific reasons. This can also include excessive favoring (or disfavoring) prevalent scientific opinion, if in doing so, other viewpoints are no longer being treated neutrally.


See also

  • Bias (textile)
    Bias (textile)

    The bias or cross-grain direction of a piece of weave Textile, usually referred to simply as "the bias" or "the cross-grain", is at 45 degrees to its Warp and weft threads....
  • List of cognitive biases
    List of cognitive biases

    A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations .Implicit in the concept of a "pattern of deviation" is a standard of comparison; this may be the judgment of people outside those particular situations, or may be a set of independently verifiable facts....
  • Scholarly method
    Scholarly method

    Scholarly method — or as it is more commonly called, scholarship — is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public....
  • Source criticism
    Source criticism

    This entry is about source evaluation in an interdisciplinary context and thus not limited to some discipline-specific understanding of the term "source criticism"....
  • Weasel word
    Weasel word

    Weasel words is an informal term for words that are ambiguous and not supported by facts. They are typically used to create an illusion of clear, direct communication....
  • Bias adjustment of valve tube amplifiers
  • Bias ratio (finance)
    Bias ratio (finance)

    The bias ratio is an indicator used in finance to analyze the returns of investment portfolios, and in performing due diligence.The bias ratio is a concrete metric that detects valuation bias or deliberate price manipulation of portfolio assets by a manager of a hedge fund, mutual fund or similar investment vehicle, without requiring...


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