In this lesson, you will learn about how to avoid bias while evaluating evidence. You will apply this information to continue developing your problem solving skill. Specifically, this lesson will cover:
1. Causes of Bias
Bias means presenting facts and arguments in a way that consciously favors one side or another in an argument.
Bias can result from the way you have organized your experiences in your own mind. You have lumped some experiences into the “good” box and some experiences into the “bad” box. Just about everybody does this.
If, through your own experiences and reflection on those experiences, you have a better understanding of something, your bias can be a good thing.
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EXAMPLE
If you have been a traffic police officer, and have seen lots of disasters due to speed and alcohol, it is not “wrong” for you to be biased against fast cars and drinking at parties and bars. Your bias is due to your better understanding of the issue, but you still have to argue logically.
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- Bias
- Presenting information in a way that favors one side over another in an argument.
2. Recognizing Bias
Even writers who claim to be objective or neutral may still present their bias in subtle ways.
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Placement of material: If the support for one side of the argument is mainly at the top of the article, and the reasons to support the opposite side of the issue are mainly at the bottom end of the article, that might be an example of subtle bias.
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Quotation usage: Quotations from real people have more emotional weight than statements made by the writer. This is especially true if the person being quoted is an authority on the subject or a celebrity. So if one side of the issue is being supported by lots of quotations while the other side isn’t, that is a subtle form of bias.
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Monetary gain: Common sense tells us that if someone is making money from something, the person will be biased in favor of it.
EXAMPLE
A person who makes money out of building nuclear reactors in Europe or China could be expected to support a change in policy in Australia towards developing nuclear energy. On the other hand, a manufacturer of cigarettes is unlikely to be in favor of health warnings on cigarette packets or bans on smoking in bars.
Keep in mind, however, that you have to listen to arguments as they come up. You cannot just assume that someone is biased; rather, you have to show that someone is biased and use evidence to support your assertion.
3. Locating Sources and Avoiding Bias
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Wikipedia can be a good place to browse information, but it is not a valid academic source because anyone can edit any page. The information cannot be verified.
When looking for sources, news reports are often a good place to start. They may contain summaries of information that you can use directly in your essay, and that may lead to other sources. However, while news reports can seem neutral, they are sometimes tainted by political or social biases. Make sure that your source is not partisan.
Libraries and library databases are good sources of scholarly publications. When you find a useful book or article, the bibliography in that publication can lead to additional resources.
Some websites provide a wealth of information. Blogs and commercial websites cannot be assumed to be unbiased, but they might provide useful first-person data. In contrast, websites that end in .gov or .edu often provide neutral and detailed research findings.
When examining a source, ask yourself the following questions:
Who wrote this and when was it written?
- Getting a sense of who the author is and the context of their work will indicate whether or not it is current, unbiased, and rational.
Who published this?
- If you’re investigating a website or a news article, check the “masthead” of that publication. A masthead is a list of the people involved in the publication and may include contact information. Regarding websites, look for a link to an “About Us” page (or something similar).
- Use a search engine to find information on a news source, and also look at its Wikipedia page. This is a good way to make sure that a source is unbiased, and that you’re not accidentally citing humor or satire.
What are the methods?
- To identify the methods used to achieve the results or findings provided by a source, look for a section called “Methodology.” This is particularly important for research experiments, polls, and similar data. If the methods indicate that the research has a narrow scope but is being applied broadly, that’s a warning sign that it isn’t reliable information.
What kind of information does this source cite?
- If you review its bibliography, do you find good, trustworthy sources, or do the sources listed there appear biased?
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Although there’s no sure-fire way to determine whether or not a source is valid, the more you research, the better you’ll become at distinguishing the good from the bad. Taking some time to really evaluate your sources will help you make good choices for your research.
Let’s look at how bias can affect problem solving in your career. Imagine an employee is trying to plan projects and wants to find the best project management tool for her team. If they look at the websites of the tool, the information will likely be very biased, as it’s written by the developer of the tool, who wants to convince you to purchase it. The employee should find unbiased sources of information, such as an unsponsored publication from a professional project management association. Using unbiased information sources will best enable you to solve problems you encounter throughout your career.
In this lesson, you learned that writers' own experiences and beliefs are common causes of bias. Additionally, you learned that recognizing bias can be tricky when the bias is presented in subtle ways. Understanding bias will help you both evaluate it in your research sources and address it in your own writing. You learned about ways to locate sources and avoid bias. News reports and websites can be great sources of information, but it’s important to make sure that they present information in a neutral, factual way. Finally, you applied this information to improve your problem solving skill, preparing you to find credible information to tackle the problems you will encounter in your career.
Best of luck in your learning!
