Is bias a word

There are a lot of words in the English language that sound really cool to say even if you don’t really understand what they mean. One of these words is the word «bias.» Have you ever wondered how to define this word let alone how to use it correctly in a sentence?

Bias is a word that means that someone is giving preference to one idea instead of another. For instance, you may say «Sally seems to be biased towards Italian food.» Here the word bias simply means that Sally has a strong preference for Italian food over any other type of food she may be offered.

What Bias Means

To be biased means that you are disproportionately in favor of or against an idea or a thing. Usually, this is done in such a way that you look like you’re closed-minded, prejudiced, or simply being unfair.

To gain a better understanding of the word bias you can think of it as a person who prefers an idea to the extent that they really don’t give another idea equal opportunity. There are many different factors that can influence bias. One of the biggest things that influence bias is popularity. For instance, you might say that a newspaper is biased towards a certain political party because their employees share the same political beliefs as that party.

With this understanding in mind, it’s important to note that biases can be either innate or learned. For instance, you may develop a bias for or against certain people, groups, or beliefs.

The word bias is also used in science and engineering. Here it’s referred to as a «systematic error.» This can result from taking an unfair sample of a population or from an estimation process that doesn’t provide you with results that are accurate.

Etymology of the Word «Bias»

The word «bias» comes from an Indo-European word that actually doesn’t even look as though it’s related to this word: SKER. When you look at the root of this word you’ll understand that it means to cut. In English, this gives rise to a lot of different words including:

• Shear
• Shears
• Sheer
• Score
• Scar
• Scabbard
• Scarp
• Escarpment
• Scrabble
• Scrub
• Shrub
• Scurf
• Shard
• Sharp
• Short
• Skirt
• Skirmish
• Scrimmage
• Scrum

There are also variants of this word that are related to its root, KER. These include:

• Cortex
• Decorticate
• Curt
• Cutlass

You also have the Greek adjective «karsios» which means to cut crosswise. When you add this prefix you get «epikarsios,» which also meant crosswise. However, this was used in a more restricted sense such as running at right angles. As such it was used to describe a striped garment, the planks of a ship, or the grid of streets. Sometimes this word was also used to describe coastlines. With the consonantal shift and elision, we eventually get the French word «biais,» from which comes bias.

Understanding What Bias Is

Now that you have a definition of the word, you’ll want to have a better understanding of how bias is sewn throughout the fabric of our lives. This is something that starts at a young age. People will automatically start to discriminate between those people who are like them and those who aren’t like them. While this helps children develop a sense of identity it can also result in prejudice.

There are three main types of bias:

• Information bias (a.k.a. observational bias, misclassification) occurs when there’s been an error in measuring that results in different results being obtained by different groups.
• Selection bias occurs when the selection of individuals, groups, or data that’s being analyzed is introduced in such a way that nothing is randomized. This makes it so that the sample that’s obtained doesn’t represent the population that’s being analyzed. In other words, statistical analysis has been distorted because of the way the samples were collected. If this isn’t taken into consideration the some of the study’s conclusions may not be true.
• Confounding bias is a systematic distortion that occurs in the measurement that exists between exposure and a health outcome. This is because the exposure’s effect has gotten mixed up with the extraneous risk factors.

None of these types of biases make you a bad person nor are they all negative or hurtful. However, you must recognize that bias exists or it can result in your making bad decisions in your life.

Showing Bias in Writing

When an article or an editorial is said to be biased it means that it’s showing one narrow viewpoint and excluding any other viewpoints. Oftentimes you can see that bias exists because certain facts and quotes are used in support of the favored viewpoint. If the writer decides to write their article in this fashion, then they’ll typically exclude any facts or opinions that don’t support their viewpoint. For instance, an article that shows bias towards riding a motorcycle would show facts about how riding a motorcycle will get you good gas mileage and be a lot of fun. On the other hand, if you’re writing an article that’s biased against riding a motorcycle you’ll probably show that people can get hurt and that motorcycles are noisy while you don’t say anything positive about them.

Another example would be if you were to write an article that’s biased against guns. In this article, you’d only show facts and information that support your position here. For instance, you may say that guns are responsible for suicides and accidental shootings. You may also share other facts that shed a negative light on guns. However, if you were writing an article that was in support of guns you’d only include information that shed a positive light on guns. For instance, you may state how many lives have been saved by the use of guns, how many crimes have been prevented because civilians were able to have guns and other facts and information that shed a good light on owning guns.

It’s also possible to show bias in writing by choosing to use slang words when referring to groups of people or things. Some of the most commonly used words in this regard include:

• «Broad» instead of «woman»
• «Murdercycle» instead of «motorcycle»
• «Geezer» instead of «elderly person»
• «Gypped» instead of «cheated»
• «Homo» instead of «gay person»
• «Illegal alien» instead of «immigrant»
• «Mankind» instead of «humanity»
• «Master/slave» instead of «primary/secondary»

Sometimes phrases can even be used to make assumptions, hence showing bias. For instance, someone may say that «All Chinese people are good at math.»

Additionally, bias means «a mistake in measurement.» For instance, someone may measure the height of a person while they’re wearing shoes. The shoes will make this person taller than someone who isn’t wearing shoes. If it wasn’t stated that this person was wearing shoes, then someone may think that the person is actually taller than the person who isn’t wearing shoes. This is just one of the many examples of what’s known as «biased data.»

Understanding how bias exists in our culture is important. Unfortunately, you’ll find bias in a lot of different settings – both personal and professional alike. This is something that’ll continue happening until we all have a more open mind. It’ll take some work for people to push aside their preconceived notions in this regard. What makes this worse though is that the news should be reporting stories in a way that’s completely unbiased and objective. However, this is something that doesn’t always happen in today’s culture.

Examples of How to Use Bias in a Sentence

Now that you have a better understanding of what the word bias means, you may want to start using the word in your speech. Here are a few examples of how to use this word in sentences:

• He was naturally biased regarding how things were.
• In this document, you’ll receive guidance regarding how to reduce optimism bias in scheme development.
• The people there were biased towards the French’s fashions and ways of life.
• Their self-serving bias regarding success can be illustrated by some of my own experiences.
• That’s a great way to accurately express the prevailing bias the author had.
• He showed a strong bias towards abstract thought, especially in regard to mathematics.
• This is a bias that’s been reflected in the half-truth that says «correction should precede interpretation.»
• You’ll be given a lot of details along with access to official correspondence and documents some of which will be biased but will nevertheless help you to better understand the situation at hand.
• When you compare the sovereign to her ministers you’ll find that she has the advantage of having a lot of experience in an elevated position so she isn’t nearly as biased as they are.
• Its author showed a great bias towards math and mechanics in the quantity of his units and the fact he relied heavily upon the formula.

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you come out and use the word or it’s more implicit in nature, the word bias still means the same thing: Someone is unfairly giving preference to a person, thing, or idea in comparison to another.

Recent Examples on the Web

Everyone’s focused on bias, which is certainly a problem, and it’s being worked on.


—ABC News, 2 Apr. 2023




Yes, recency bias, certainly.


—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 1 Apr. 2023




Those workers are likely picking up on proximity bias, which can have real consequences.


—Jane Thier, Fortune, 31 Mar. 2023




For decades, documentaries have spoken truth to power and exposed inequity and injustice–but what about documentaries’ own biases, imbalances, and abuses?


—Addie Morfoot, Variety, 27 Mar. 2023




Younger Workers Are Also Impacted by Ageism While the ADEA was put in place to protect workers age 40 and older from workplace discrimination on the basis of age, many U.S. cities and states model other countries and protect all ages against age bias, bullying and discrimination.


—Sheila Callaham, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023




Part of this has to do with racial bias, Dr. Horton explains—Black patients’ pain is often undertreated.


—Women’s Health, 22 Mar. 2023




Amazon delivery firms say racial bias skews customer reviews.


—Elvia Limón, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2023




Most episodes concern some sort of tragic inferno that is threatening the good people of Seattle, and a squadron of brave, good-looking professionals dampen the flames while simultaneously tending to their own demons, biases, and flirtations.


—Luke Winkie, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2023

Our intuitions bias our decision-making criteria to encourage certain outcomes that fit our instincts.


—Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023




The work biases me toward odd and surprising narratives, the more dangerous the potential story, the more powerful its draw.


—Dan Hernandez, Longreads, 28 Feb. 2023




The cohort may have been biased toward those with more severe outcomes, because people with milder or asymptomatic cases may not have made contact with health care systems.


—Benjamin Ryan, NBC News, 21 Feb. 2023




And I‘m terribly biased because I‘m a man of old European culture.


—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Apr. 2021




Memory can be biased, and eyewitness accounts can be inaccurate.


—Ramin Skibba, WIRED, 31 Mar. 2023




HireVue previously used facial analysis software in its interviews but began phasing out the technology in 2020 after complaints that the tech could be biased, is unproven and invasive.


—Danielle Abril, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Mar. 2023




It’s warned in recent years that biased AI systems could draw enforcement action, and in a joint event this week with the Department of Justice, FTC Chair Lina Khan said the agency would be looking for signs of large incumbent tech companies trying to lock out competition.


—Adi Robertson, The Verge, 30 Mar. 2023




HireVue previously used facial analysis software in its interviews but began phasing out the technology in 2020 after complaints that the tech could be biased, is unproven and invasive.


—Danielle Abril, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2023

The Kennys told city officials during settlement negotiations that any agreement would need to include a plan for systemic use-of-force reforms and anti-bias training that would help officers better deal with minorities and people with mental disabilities.


—Kimberly Kindy, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Sep. 2022




Anti-bias training is included in our onboarding process and reiterated during site-wide meetings.


—Democrat-gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 12 Nov. 2022




The Kennys told city officials during settlement negotiations that any agreement would need to include a plan for systemic use-of-force reforms and anti-bias training that would help officers better deal with minorities and people with mental disabilities.


—Kimberly Kindy, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Sep. 2022




The Kennys told city officials during settlement negotiations that any agreement would need to include a plan for systemic use-of-force reforms and anti-bias training that would help officers better deal with minorities and people with mental disabilities.


—Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2022




The city also agreed to provide anti-bias training, maintain an early intervention program for officers who might require assistance or training and ensure that all officers’ personnel files are kept throughout their law enforcement career, The Colorado Springs Gazette reported.


—Christine Pelisek, PEOPLE.com, 9 Feb. 2022




Anti-bias training is included in our onboarding process and reiterated during site-wide meetings.


—Democrat-gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 12 Nov. 2022




Anti-bias training is included in our onboarding process and reiterated during site-wide meetings.


—Democrat-gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 12 Nov. 2022




As a congresswoman, Ms. Bass took a leading role in 2020 after George Floyd’s death on legislation that aimed to prevent excessive use of force by police and promoted new officer anti-bias training.


—Jeffery C. Mays, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2023


See More

Do you know your biases? If you don’t know what the word bias means, you might have trouble identifying and beating bias in your everyday life. Read on to learn what bias means, its synonyms, and its antonyms.

What Does the Word Bias Mean?

According to Dictionary, the word bias has a few different meanings. First, this word can be used as a noun. As a noun, the word bias refers to a tendency, feeling, or opinion that is preconceived — often negatively and without reason. This hostility or prejudice can be toward a certain social group, racial group, and more.

The word bias can also be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb to refer to a diagonal cut or fold, made across a woven fabric. This would usually be referred to as doing something “on the bias.” In short, on the bias means diagonally.

The word bias is two syllables (bi-as), and the pronunciation of bias is ˈbaɪəs.

What Are Translations of the Word Bias?

Many different languages around the world contain their own way of saying the word bias. If you are going to be traveling to a foreign country, talking with a person who does not speak English, or studying a foreign language, you can use this list of translations of bias to communicate.

If you look closely at this list, you may notice that some of the words in different languages resemble one another in look and sound. This often happens when two words have the same root word or language of origin. These are called cognates, and are often seen in linguistics and language studies. 

Be careful of false cognates, which are words in different languages that sound the same but mean something very different.

• Armenian: կողմնակալություն‎, կողմնապահություն‎
• German: Voreingenommenheit‎ (fem.)
• Czech: zaujetí‎ (neut.), předpojatost‎ (fem.)
• Maori: ngākaukino‎
• Italian: pregiudizio‎ (masc.), predisposizione‎ (fem.), inclinazione‎ (fem.), tendenza‎ (fem.), predilezione‎, preferenza‎ (fem.)
• Norwegian: fordom‎, partiskhet‎
• Catalan: biaix‎ (masc.)
• Hungarian: elfogultság‎, részrehajlás‎
• Swedish: partiskhet‎ (common)
• Portuguese: viés‎ (masc.), distorção‎ (fem.), tendência‎ (fem.), tendenciosidade‎ (fem.)
• Greek: προκατάληψη‎ (fem.)
• Danish: partiskhed‎ (common), slagside‎ (common), forudindtagethed‎ (common)
• Dutch: neiging‎, vooroordeel‎ (neut.), vooringenomenheid‎ (fem.)
• Cantonese: 偏見‎
• Arabic: تَحَيُّز‎ (masc.)
• Russian: предубежде́ние‎
• Spanish: inclinación‎ (fem.), predisposición‎ (fem.), parcialidad‎ (fem.), prejuicio‎ (fem.), sesgo‎, preferencia‎ (fem.), predilección‎ (fem.), tendencia‎ (fem.)
• Tagalog: ayo‎

What Is the Etymology of the Word Bias?

Dictionary states that the word bias comes from the Old French biais which is based on an Old Provençal word. It is likely that this is ultimately based on the Greek epikarsios meaning oblique.

How Can the Word Bias Be Used in a Sentence?

The word bias is versatile and can be used in a variety of sentences. When you are learning a new word, it is important to learn its definition and know how to use it in a sentence. If you know a definition but do not know how to use the word, it is not very useful at all.

To learn how to use the word bias in a sentence, look at the below example sentences. Study how the word bias is used in these sentences. Then, try to come up with an example sentence of your own or use this word in daily life.

She made a slanting cut on the bias so that the fabric would fit perfectly around the bowl.

Psychologists called it implicit bias, but the world called it blatant racism, sexism, and homophobia. He did not treat his colleagues with equity and favored white people over Black people.

She made a bias cut on an oblique line for the garment’s darting.

The systematic bias had been present in the company’s decision-making for years, which showed in their racial statistics and behaviors. They lacked diversity and had an abundance of discrimination. Their biases — whether unconscious or conscious — led to a lack of diverse clients.

The inclusion specialist taught the company not to be biased against those of a differing gender or sexual orientation.

What Are Synonyms of the Word Bias?

Many words have the same meaning as the word bias. These are called synonyms, and this list of synonyms of the word bias is from Power Thesaurus. 

You can use a synonym to replace a word you have used more than once to vary your speech and writing. You can also use a synonym to change the connotation of a word. The word bias has a fairly negative connotation. You can find a word with a positive connotation instead by using a synonym.

• affect
• bent
• bigotry
• diagonal
• discrimination
• disposition
• distort
• favor
• favoritism
• inclination
• incline
• inequality
• influence
• intolerance
• leaning
• mindset
• one-sidedness
• partiality
• partisanship
• penchant
• preconception
• predilection
• predispose
• predisposition
• preference
• prejudice
• proclivity
• proneness
• propensity
• skew
• slant
• sway
• tendency
• trend
• twist
• unfairness
• warp

What Are Antonyms of the Word Bias?

Just like some words have the same definition as the word bias, some words have the opposite definition. These are called antonyms. Power Thesaurus also provides a long list of antonyms for the word bias as well. How many of these words do you know?

• antipathy
• balance
• be fair
• be impartial
• be just
• detachment
• detestation
• disgust
• disinterest
• disinterestedness
• dislike
• dispassion
• dispassionateness
• disrelish
• equal opportunities
• equal opportunity
• equal rights
• equal treatment
• equity
• fair treatment
• fairness
• hatred
• impartiality
• indifference
• justice
• justness
• loathing
• neutrality
• nonpartisanship
• objectiveness
• objectivity
• open-mindedness
• Tolerance

Conclusion

Overall, the word bias refers to an implicit social cognition, irrational preference, or tendency that can spread stereotypes and negativity toward people. It can also refer to a diagonal line, often on fabric. The word bias often has a negative connotation.

Sources:

1. Bias Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com 
2. Bias synonyms – 2 029 Words and Phrases for Bias | Power Thesaurus 
3. Bias antonyms – 571 Opposites of Bias | Power Thesaurus 

Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief.^[1] In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error. Statistical bias results from an unfair sampling of a population, or from an estimation process that does not give accurate results on average.^[2]

Etymology[edit]

The word appears to derive from Old Provençal into Old French biais, «sideways, askance, against the grain». Whence comes French biais, «a slant, a slope, an oblique».^[3]

It seems to have entered English via the game of bowls, where it referred to balls made with a greater weight on one side. Which expanded to the figurative use, «a one-sided tendency of the mind», and, at first especially in law, «undue propensity or prejudice».^[3]

Types of bias[edit]

Cognitive biases[edit]

A cognitive bias is a repeating or basic misstep in thinking, assessing, recollecting, or other cognitive processes.^[4] That is, a pattern of deviation from standards in judgment, whereby inferences may be created unreasonably.^[5] People create their own «subjective social reality» from their own perceptions,^[6] their view of the world may dictate their behaviour.^[7] Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality.^[8][9][10] However some cognitive biases are taken to be adaptive, and thus may lead to success in the appropriate situation.^[11] Furthermore, cognitive biases may allow speedier choices when speed is more valuable than precision.^[12] Other cognitive biases are a «by-product» of human processing limitations,^[13] coming about because of an absence of appropriate mental mechanisms, or just from human limitations in information processing.^[14]

Anchoring[edit]

Anchoring is a psychological heuristic that describes the propensity to rely on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions.^[15][16][17] According to this heuristic, individuals begin with an implicitly suggested reference point (the «anchor») and make adjustments to it to reach their estimate.^[2] For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable even if they are still higher than what the car is worth.^[18][19]

Apophenia[edit]

Apophenia, also known as patternicity,^[20][21] or agenticity,^[22] is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data. Apophenia is well documented as a rationalization for gambling. Gamblers may imagine that they see patterns in the numbers which appear in lotteries, card games, or roulette wheels.^[23] One manifestation of this is known as the «gambler’s fallacy».

Pareidolia is the visual or auditory form of apophenia. It has been suggested that pareidolia combined with hierophany may have helped ancient societies organize chaos and make the world intelligible.^[24][25]

Attribution bias[edit]

An attribution bias can happen when individuals assess or attempt to discover explanations behind their own and others’ behaviors.^[26][27][28] People make attributions about the causes of their own and others’ behaviors; but these attributions do not necessarily precisely reflect reality. Rather than operating as objective perceivers, individuals are inclined to perceptual slips that prompt biased understandings of their social world.^[29][30] When judging others we tend to assume their actions are the result of internal factors such as personality, whereas we tend to assume our own actions arise because of the necessity of external circumstances. There are a wide range of sorts of attribution biases, such as the ultimate attribution error, fundamental attribution error, actor-observer bias, and self-serving bias.

Examples of attribution bias:^[31]

Confirmation bias[edit]

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs or hypotheses while giving disproportionately less attention to information that contradicts it.^[33] The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations). Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts.^[34][35]

Framing[edit]

Framing involves the social construction of social phenomena by mass media sources, political or social movements, political leaders, and so on. It is an influence over how people organize, perceive, and communicate about reality.^[36] It can be positive or negative, depending on the audience and what kind of information is being presented. For political purposes, framing often presents facts in such a way that implicates a problem that is in need of a solution. Members of political parties attempt to frame issues in a way that makes a solution favoring their own political leaning appear as the most appropriate course of action for the situation at hand.^[37] As understood in social theory, framing is a schema of interpretation, a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes, that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events.^[38] People use filters to make sense of the world, the choices they then make are influenced by their creation of a frame.

Cultural bias is the related phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one’s own culture. Numerous such biases exist, concerning cultural norms for color, location of body parts, mate selection, concepts of justice, linguistic and logical validity, acceptability of evidence, and taboos. Ordinary people may tend to imagine other people as basically the same, not significantly more or less valuable, probably attached emotionally to different groups and different land.

Halo effect and horn effect[edit]

The halo effect and the horn effect are when an observer’s overall impression of a person, organization, brand, or product influences their feelings about specifics of that entity’s character or properties.^[39][40][41]

The name halo effect is based on the concept of the saint’s halo, and is a specific type of confirmation bias, wherein positive sentiments in one area cause questionable or unknown characteristics to be seen positively. If the observer likes one aspect of something, they will have a positive predisposition toward everything about it.^{[42][43][44][45]} A person’s appearance has been found to produce a halo effect.^[46] The halo effect is also present in the field of brand marketing, affecting perception of companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).^{[47][48][49][50][51][52][53]}

The opposite of the halo is the horn effect, when «individuals believe (that negative) traits are inter-connected.»^[54] The term horn effect refers to Devil’s horns.^{[citation needed]} It works in a negative direction: if the observer dislikes one aspect of something, they will have a negative predisposition towards other aspects.^[55]

Both of these bias effects often clash with phrases such as «words mean something»^[56][57] and «Your words have a history.»^[58]

Self-serving bias[edit]

Self-serving bias is the tendency for cognitive or perceptual processes to be distorted by the individual’s need to maintain and enhance self-esteem.^[59] It is the propensity to credit accomplishment to our own capacities and endeavors, yet attribute failure to outside factors,^[60] to dismiss the legitimacy of negative criticism, concentrate on positive qualities and accomplishments yet disregard flaws and failures. Studies have demonstrated that this bias can affect behavior in the workplace,^[61] in interpersonal relationships,^[62] playing sports,^[63] and in consumer decisions.^[64]

Status quo bias[edit]

Status quo bias is an emotional bias; a preference for the current state of affairs. The current baseline (or status quo) is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss.
Status quo bias should be distinguished from a rational preference for the status quo ante, as when the current state of affairs is objectively superior to the available alternatives, or when imperfect information is a significant problem. A large body of evidence, however, shows that status quo bias frequently affects human decision-making.^[65]

Conflicts of interest[edit]

A conflict of interest is when a person or association has intersecting interests (financial, personal, etc.) which could potentially corrupt. The potential conflict is autonomous of actual improper actions, it can be found and intentionally defused before corruption, or the appearance of corruption, happens. «A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgement or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest.»^[66] It exists if the circumstances are sensibly accepted to present a hazard that choices made may be unduly affected by auxiliary interests.^[67]

Bribery[edit]

Bribery is giving of money, goods or other forms of recompense to in order to influence the recipient’s behavior.^[68] Bribes can include money (including tips), goods, rights in action, property, privilege, emolument, gifts, perks, skimming, return favors, discounts, sweetheart deals, kickbacks, funding, donations, campaign contributions, sponsorships, stock options, secret commissions, or promotions.^[69] Expectations of when a monetary transaction is appropriate can differ from place to place. Political campaign contributions in the form of cash are considered criminal acts of bribery in some countries, while in the United States they are legal provided they adhere to election law. Tipping is considered bribery in some societies, but not others.

Favoritism[edit]

Favoritism, sometimes known as in-group favoritism, or in-group bias, refers to a pattern of favoring members of one’s in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways.^[70][71] This has been researched by psychologists, especially social psychologists, and linked to group conflict and prejudice. Cronyism is favoritism of long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications.^[72] Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives.^{[73][74][75][76]}

Lobbying[edit]

Lobbying is the attempt to influence choices made by administrators, frequently lawmakers or individuals from administrative agencies.^[77][78][79] Lobbyists may be among a legislator’s constituencies, or not; they may engage in lobbying as a business, or not. Lobbying is often spoken of with contempt, the implication is that people with inordinate socioeconomic power are corrupting the law in order to serve their own interests. When people who have a duty to act on behalf of others, such as elected officials with a duty to serve their constituents’ interests or more broadly the common good, stand to benefit by shaping the law to serve the interests of some private parties, there is a conflict of interest. This can lead to all sides in a debate looking to sway the issue by means of lobbyists.

Regulatory issues[edit]

Self-regulation is the process whereby an organization monitors its own adherence to legal, ethical, or safety standards, rather than have an outside, independent agency such as a third party entity monitor and enforce those standards.^[80] Self-regulation of any group can create a conflict of interest. If any organization, such as a corporation or government bureaucracy, is asked to eliminate unethical behavior within their own group, it may be in their interest in the short run to eliminate the appearance of unethical behavior, rather than the behavior itself.

Regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that can occur when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.^[81][82] Regulatory capture occurs because groups or individuals with a high-stakes interest in the outcome of policy or regulatory decisions can be expected to focus their resources and energies in attempting to gain the policy outcomes they prefer, while members of the public, each with only a tiny individual stake in the outcome, will ignore it altogether.^[83] Regulatory capture is a risk to which a regulatory agency is exposed by its very nature.^[84][85]

Shilling[edit]

Shilling is deliberately giving spectators the feeling that one is an energetic autonomous client of a vendor for whom one is working. The effectiveness of shilling relies on crowd psychology to encourage other onlookers or audience members to purchase the goods or services (or accept the ideas being marketed). Shilling is illegal in some places, but legal in others.^[86] An example of shilling is paid reviews that give the impression of being autonomous opinions.

Statistical biases[edit]

Statistical bias is a systematic tendency in the process of data collection, which results in lopsided, misleading results. This can occur in any of a number of ways, in the way the sample is selected, or in the way data are collected.^[87] It is a property of a statistical technique or of its results whereby the expected value of the results differs from the true underlying quantitative parameter being estimated.

Forecast bias[edit]

A forecast bias is when there are consistent differences between results and the forecasts of those quantities; that is: forecasts may have an overall tendency to be too high or too low.

Observer-expectancy effect[edit]

The observer-expectancy effect is when a researcher’s expectations cause them to subconsciously influence the people participating in an experiment. It is usually controlled using a double-blind system, and was an important reason for the development of double-blind experiments.

Reporting bias and social desirability bias[edit]

In epidemiology and empirical research, reporting bias is defined as «selective revealing or suppression of information» of undesirable behavior by subjects^[88] or researchers.^[89][90]
It refers to a tendency to under-report unexpected or undesirable experimental results, while being more trusting of expected or desirable results. This can propagate, as each instance reinforces the status quo, and later experimenters justify their own reporting bias by observing that previous experimenters reported different results.

Social desirability bias is a bias within social science research where survey respondents can tend to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed positively by others.^[91] It can take the form of over-reporting laudable behavior, or under-reporting undesirable behavior. This bias interferes with the interpretation of average tendencies as well as individual differences. The inclination represents a major issue with self-report questionnaires; of special concern are self-reports of abilities, personalities, sexual behavior, and drug use.^[91]

Selection bias[edit]

Selection bias is the conscious or unconscious bias introduced into a study by the way individuals, groups or data are selected for analysis, if such a way means that true randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed.^[92] This results in a sample that may be significantly different from the overall population.

Prejudices[edit]

Bias and prejudice are usually considered to be closely related.^[93] Prejudice is prejudgment, or forming an opinion before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case. The word is often used to refer to preconceived, usually unfavorable, judgments toward people or a person because of gender, political opinion, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race/ethnicity, language, nationality, or other personal characteristics. Prejudice can also refer to unfounded beliefs^[94] and may include «any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence».^[95]

Ageism[edit]

Ageism is the stereotyping and/or discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. It can be used in reference to prejudicial attitudes towards older people, or towards younger people.

Classism[edit]

Classism is discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes attitudes that benefit the upper class at the expense of the lower class, or vice versa.^[96]

Lookism[edit]

Lookism is stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination on the basis of physical attractiveness, or more generally to people whose appearance matches cultural preferences.^[97][98][99] Many people make automatic judgments of others based on their physical appearance that influence how they respond to those people.^[100][101]

Racism[edit]

Racism consists of ideologies based on a desire to dominate or a belief in the inferiority of another race.^[102][103] It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently.^{[104][105][106]}

Sexism[edit]

Sexism is discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. Sexism can affect any gender, but it is particularly documented as affecting women and girls.^[107] It has been linked to stereotypes and gender roles,^[108][109] and may include the belief that one sex or gender is intrinsically superior to another.^[110]

Contextual biases[edit]

Biases in academia[edit]

Academic bias[edit]

Academic bias is the bias or perceived bias of scholars allowing their beliefs to shape their research and the scientific community. Claims of bias are often linked to claims by conservatives of pervasive bias against political conservatives and religious Christians.^[111] Some have argued that these claims are based upon anecdotal evidence which would not reliably indicate systematic bias,^{[112][113][114]} and have suggested that this divide is due to self-selection of conservatives choosing not to pursue academic careers.^[112][115]
There is some evidence that perception of classroom bias may be rooted in issues of sexuality, race, class and sex as much or more than in religion.^[116][117]

Experimenter bias[edit]

In science research, experimenter bias occurs when experimenter expectancies regarding study results bias the research outcome.^[118] Examples of experimenter bias include conscious or unconscious influences on subject behavior including creation of demand characteristics that influence subjects, and altered or selective recording of experimental results themselves.^[119]

Funding bias[edit]

Funding bias refers to the tendency of a scientific study to support the interests of the study’s financial sponsor. This phenomenon is recognized sufficiently that researchers undertake studies to examine bias in past published studies.^[120] It can be caused by any or all of: a conscious or subconscious sense of obligation of researchers towards their employers,^[121] misconduct or malpractice,^[122] publication bias,^{[122][123][124][125]} or reporting bias.^[126]

Full text on net bias[edit]

Full text on net (or FUTON) bias is a tendency of scholars to cite academic journals with open access—that is, journals that make their full text available on the internet without charge—in their own writing as compared with toll access publications. Scholars can more easily discover and access articles that have their full text on the internet, which increases authors’ likelihood of reading, quoting, and citing these articles, this may increase the impact factor of open access journals relative to journals without open access.^{[127][128][129][130][131][132]}

The related bias, no abstract available bias (NAA bias) is scholars’ tendency to cite journal articles that have an abstract available online more readily than articles that do not.^[127][132]

Publication bias[edit]

Publication bias is a type of bias with regard to what academic research is likely to be published because of a tendency of researchers, and journal editors, to prefer some outcomes rather than others e.g. results showing a significant finding, leads to a problematic bias in the published literature.^[133] This can propagate further as literature reviews of claims about support for a hypothesis will themselves be biased if the original literature is contaminated by publication bias.^[134] Studies with significant results often do not appear to be superior to studies with a null result with respect to quality of design.^[135] However, statistically significant results have been shown to be three times more likely to be published compared to papers with null results.^[136]

Biases in law enforcement[edit]

Driving while black[edit]

Driving while black refers to the racial profiling of African American drivers. The phrase implies that a motorist might be pulled over by a police officer, questioned, and searched, because of a racial bias.^[137][138]

Racial profiling[edit]

Racial profiling, or ethnic profiling, is the act of suspecting or targeting a person of a certain race on the basis of racially observed characteristics or behavior, rather than on individual suspicion.^[139][140] Racial profiling is commonly referred to regarding its use by law enforcement, and its leading to discrimination against minorities.

Victim blaming[edit]

Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a wrongful act is held at fault for the harm that befell them.^[141] The study of victimology seeks to mitigate the perception of victims as responsible.^[142]

Biases in media[edit]

Media bias is the bias or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events, the stories that are reported, and how they are covered. The term generally implies a pervasive or widespread bias violating the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article.^[143] The level of media bias in different nations is debated. There are also watchdog groups that report on media bias.

Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts, the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative, government influence including overt and covert censorship,^[144] the influence of the owners of the news source, concentration of media ownership, the selection of staff, the preferences of an intended audience, and pressure from advertisers.

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.^[145]

Agenda setting[edit]

Agenda setting describes the capacity of the media to focus on particular stories, if a news item is covered frequently and prominently, the audience will regard the issue as more important. That is, its salience will increase.^[146]

Gatekeeping[edit]

Gatekeeping is the way in which information and news are filtered to the public, by each person or corporation along the way. It is the «process of culling and crafting countless bits of information into the limited number of messages that reach people every day, and it is the center of the media’s role in modern public life. […] This process determines not only which information is selected, but also what the content and nature of the messages, such as news, will be.»^[147]

Sensationalism[edit]

Sensationalism is when events and topics in news stories and pieces are overhyped to present skewed impressions of events, which may cause a misrepresentation of the truth of a story.^[148] Sensationalism may involve reporting about insignificant matters and events, or the presentation of newsworthy topics in a trivial or tabloid manner contrary to the standards of professional journalism.^[149][150]

Other contexts[edit]

Educational bias[edit]

Bias in education refers to real or perceived bias in the educational system. The content of school textbooks is often the issue of debate, as their target audience is young people, and the term «whitewashing» is used to refer to selective removal of critical or damaging evidence or comment.^{[151][152][153]} Religious bias in textbooks is observed in countries where religion plays a dominant role. There can be many forms of educational bias. Some overlooked aspects, occurring especially with the pedagogical circles of public and private schools—sources that are unrelated to fiduciary or mercantile impoverishment which may be unduly magnified—include teacher bias as well as a general bias against women who are going into STEM research.^[154][155]

Inductive bias[edit]

Inductive bias occurs within the field of machine learning. In machine learning one seeks to develop algorithms that are able to learn to anticipate a particular output. To accomplish this, the learning algorithm is given training cases that show the expected connection. Then the learner is tested with new examples. Without further assumptions, this problem cannot be solved exactly as unknown situations may not be predictable.^[156][157] The inductive bias of the learning algorithm is the set of assumptions that the learner uses to predict outputs given inputs that it has not encountered.^[156] It may bias the learner towards the correct solution, the incorrect, or be correct some of the time. A classical example of an inductive bias is Occam’s Razor, which assumes that the simplest consistent hypothesis is the best.

Insider trading[edit]

Insider trading is the trading of a public company’s stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) by individuals with access to non-public information about the company. In various countries, trading based on insider information is illegal because it is seen as unfair to other investors who do not have access to the information as the investor with insider information could potentially make far larger profits that a typical investor could make.

Match fixing[edit]

In organized sports, match fixing occurs when a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law.^[158] There is a variety of reasons for this, but the most common is in exchange for a payoff from gamblers. Players might also intentionally perform poorly to get an advantage in the future (such as a better draft pick, or an easier opponent in a playoff), or to rig a handicap system. Match-fixing generally refers to fixing the final result of the game. Another form of match-fixing, known as spot-fixing, involves fixing small events within a match which can be gambled upon, but which are unlikely to prove decisive in determining the final result of the game.

Implicit bias[edit]

An implicit bias, or implicit stereotype, is the unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group.^[159]

Implicit stereotypes are shaped by experience and based on learned associations between particular qualities and social categories, including race and/or gender. Individuals’ perceptions and behaviors can be influenced by the implicit stereotypes they hold, even if they are unaware/unintentionally hold such stereotypes. Implicit bias is an aspect of implicit social cognition: the phenomenon that perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes operate without conscious intention. The existence of implicit bias is supported by a variety of scientific articles in psychological literature. Implicit stereotype was first defined by psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald in 1995.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

c. 1520 in the sense «oblique line». As a technical term in the game of bowls c. 1560, whence the figurative use (c. 1570).

From French biais, adverbially («sideways, askance, against the grain») c. 1250, as a noun («oblique angle, slant») from the late 16th century.
The French word is likely from Old Occitan biais, itself of obscure origin, most likely from an unattested Latin *biaxius «with two axes».

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪəs/
• Rhymes: -aɪəs

Noun[edit]

bias (countable and uncountable, plural biases or biasses)

1. (countable, uncountable) Inclination towards something.

   Synonyms: predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection

   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 4.

     nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biasses to draw too much

   • 2020 December 3, Cade Metz; Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Google Researcher Says She Was Fired Over Paper Highlighting Bias in A.I.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Researchers worry that the people who are building artificial intelligence systems may be building their own biases into the technology.

   • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come…”, in RAIL, number 978, page 49:

     Reshaping [of British Railways] was far from perfect. It was tainted by statistical overreach, the unconscious biases of its author, and by the political demands being placed upon the BRB by government.

2. (countable, textiles) The diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric.
3. (countable, textiles) A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (such as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.
4. (electronics) A voltage or current applied to an electronic device, such as a transistor electrode, to move its operating point to a desired part of its transfer function.
5. (statistics) The difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
6. (sports) In the games of crown green bowls and lawn bowls: a weight added to one side of a bowl so that as it rolls, it will follow a curved rather than a straight path; the oblique line followed by such a bowl; the lopsided shape or structure of such a bowl. In lawn bowls, the curved course is caused only by the shape of the bowl. The use of weights is prohibited.[from 1560s]
7. (South Korean idol fandom) A person’s favourite member of a K-pop band.
   • 2015, «Top 10 Tips For Travelling To Korea», UKP Magazine, Winter 2015, page 37:

     The last thing you want is for your camera to die when you finally get that selca with your bias.

   • 2019, Katy Sprinkel, The Big Book of BTS: The Deluxe Unofficial Bangtan Book, unnumbered page:

     Sweet, sensitive, and impossibly sassy, V is many fans’ bias, and an integral member of the group.

   • 2019, Joelle Weatherford, «Can’t stop the K-Pop train», The Eagle (Northeast Texas Community College), 7 May 2019, page 8:

     One in particular, Minho, really caught my eye. He became what is called my bias or favorite member.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:bias.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

bias (third-person singular simple present biases or biasses, present participle biasing or biassing, simple past and past participle biased or biassed)

1. (transitive) To place bias upon; to influence.

   Our prejudices bias our views.

   • 1963 June, “News and Comment: Le Plan Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 364:

     No doubt they overlook the L.M.R.’s allegedly faulty financial estimates for the Euston-Liverpool/Manchester scheme, which have biassed the Treasury, and perhaps the open-minded Dr. Beeching, against electrification without renewed examination of projects.

2. (electronics) To give a bias to.
   • 2002, H. Dijkstra, J. Libby, Overview of silicon detectors, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 494, 86–93, p. 87.

     On the ohmic side n⁺ is implanted to provide the ohmic contact to bias the detector.

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bias (comparative more bias, superlative most bias)

1. Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.

   Synonym: biased

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

     Thou, trumpet, there’s my purſe; / Now cracke thy lungs, and ſplit thy braſen pipe: / Blow, villaine, till thy ſphered Bias cheeke / Out-ſwell the collicke of puft Aquilon: / Come, ſtretch thy cheſt, and let thy eyes ſpout bloud: / Thou bloweſt for Hector.

2. Cut slanting or diagonally, as cloth.

Translations[edit]

Adverb[edit]

bias (not comparable)

1. In a slanting manner; crosswise; obliquely; diagonally.

   to cut cloth bias

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• bias on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams[edit]

• ABIs, AIBs, IABs, IBSA, bais, basi-, isba

Indonesian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English bias, from French biais.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [ˈbi.as]
• Rhymes: -kaŋ, -as, -s
• Hyphenation: bi‧as

Noun[edit]

bias

1. bias,
   1. inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection.
   2. (statistics) the difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
   3. (acoustics, optics) the turning or bending of any wave, such as a light or sound wave, when it passes from one medium into another of different optical density.
   4. (colloquial) a person’s favourite member of a idol group, such as K-pop band.

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “bias” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Old Irish[edit]

Verb[edit]

bias

1. third-person singular future relative of at·tá
2. third-person singular future relative of benaid

Mutation[edit]

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
bias	bias pronounced with /v(ʲ)-/	mbias
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.