Bias

Definition

Bias is any circumstance in which the correctness, reliability, and validity of sociological data or conclusions are skewed by the constraints of a research technique used or by the presuppositions of a researcher or theory.

Statistics analysis bias is the discrepancy between a variable’s putative “true value” in the population and the result of a specific sample of responders.

Bias is normally referred as a disproportionate preference for or opposition to an idea or object, often in an unreflective, discriminatory, or unjust manner. Biases may be ingrained or acquired. Biases for or against a person, a group, or a belief may arise in people.

Explanation

Bias often refers to a presumption or inclination that colors our views or judgments. A “sampling bias” is the phrase statisticians use to describe the discrepancy between an assumed population’s “actual” distribution of a specific trait and the degree to which it is present in a given sample.

A bias departs from an accepted “truth” or an impartial metric. Bias in sociological research may occur at any or all of several phases, including those related to the research design, sampling technique, choice of the study group, questionnaire design, interview design, result analysis and interpretation. Others vehemently disagree with the claim made by certain sociologists that the use of quantitative techniques less often results in prejudice than qualitative approaches. It is likely that it is difficult to conduct research in the social or scientific sciences with complete objectivity and that the techniques used will impact the nature of the findings.

The term “bias” describes elements of the social research method that might inadvertently influence the results. The researcher or informant, the measuring tools or techniques, and the sample processes have been highlighted as the major causes of bias. Biased measurements lack validity because they are poor at measuring what they intend to assess. Biased samples do not accurately reflect the population or collection of cases they are intended to represent.

Example

For instance, if we know from the census that a town’s population is 60% female. Still, only 45% of respondents were female in the telephone survey; we may multiply the scores assigned to the responses from women respondents to account for that bias and give a proportionate weighting to female responses.

17 Types of Bias

1. Unconscious bias

Unconscious biases are taught preconceptions about certain racial or ethnic groups that develop without conscious knowledge. They may influence our behavior because they are universal, automatic, unintended, and deeply ingrained in our ideas, and automatic. Unconscious bias may be positive or negative attitudes that serve as the foundation for either favorable or negative opinions of other people. If a cricket team captain erroneously only selected individuals with ethnic backgrounds similar to their own when splitting up the players for a game, that would be an example of unconscious bias in a social setting.

2. Self-serving bias

A self-serving bias is a belief that wonderful things happen to us when we’ve done everything correctly, but terrible things happen to us due to uncontrollable factors or things that others claim. This bias makes people blame unfortunate events on other factors rather than accepting personal responsibility.

3. Confirmation bias

This sort of prejudice, a particularly harmful subtype of cognitive bias—you remember the hits and forget the misses, which is a fault in human reasoning—refers to the propensity to seek out information that confirms what you already think. The “ostrich effect,” so called because ostriches bury their heads in the sand, occurs when a person tries to avoid facts that can refute their initial claim. People tend to focus on the things that are important to them and ignore the ones that don’t.

4. Positive or negative bias

This bias describes how people are more likely to predict a favorable result when feeling upbeat and a negative one when feeling down.

5. Anchoring bias

The anchoring bias, also known as focalism, is when a person bases all future judgments or views on the first piece of information they are presented with, also known as an “anchoring” fact. For instance, if you tell someone a picture frame costs $20, and they purchase it for $15, their anchoring bias may cause them to see the $15 frame as a good deal even when the same frame may be on sale for $10 at another shop. With anchoring bias, a person’s impression of the frame’s worth will be influenced by the item’s original cost.

6. Decline bias

The decline bias is a propensity to judge the present in terms of the past, concluding that things are worse than they were in the past only because change is taking place.

7. Hindsight bias

The knew-it-all-along effect, sometimes referred to as hindsight bias, occurs when individuals believe that events were more foreseeable before they occurred. This bias causes individuals to overestimate their capacity for prediction, even when the facts available at the time would not have allowed them to arrive at the right conclusion. This kind of prejudice is prevalent in both international politics and sports. Overconfidence in one’s capacity to foresee future results may result from hindsight bias.

8. Information bias

Information bias is a cognitive bias that relates to the belief that gathering more knowledge would help one make better decisions, even if such knowledge is unrelated to the issue at hand.

9. The availability bias

This bias often referred to as the availability heuristic, is the propensity to evaluate a subject or concept based on the facts we can rapidly remember, even if that knowledge is not the most accurate one. By using this mental shortcut, we accept as true the information that is the easiest for us to remember while discounting other options or viewpoints.

10. bias in selection

When something has occurred to make us notice a certain object more, like when you buy a vehicle and suddenly see more models of that car on the road, this bias relates to how people notice things more. The person merely observes the automobile more elsewhere since it has become a part of their observations (also known as observational selection bias).

11. In-group bias

This kind of bias refers to the tendency for individuals to favor or believe members of their social group over that outside of it. Due to the tendency for people to prefer those they know and wish to support, this bias tends to undermine the impartiality of any selection or hiring process.

12. Cultural bias

Cultural bias often called implicit bias, is the tendency for people to see other cultures as strange, eccentric, or exotic merely because they are different from their own. This bias, often called implicit social cognition, assigns a person’s characteristics and actions to a wider group of individuals. As a result of implicit bias, attitudes or preconceptions are formed that may unconsciously impact or influence our judgments. This unconscious prejudice impacts many individuals since they are ignorant of the sources of their presumptive thinking.

13. The Dunning-Kruger Effect

This bias relates to the tendency for individuals to see something as straightforward simply because their understanding of it is limited or lacking—the less you know about something, the less difficult it may seem to be. However, this kind of prejudice curtails curiosity since it makes individuals feel no desire to go more into an idea because it appears obvious to them. Because they have simplified a complicated concept, persons who suffer from this bias may believe they are smarter than they really are.

14. Observer bias

When a person’s assessment of another is impacted by their own ingrained cognitive biases, this is known as the observer bias. Observers, such as researchers or scientists, may evaluate an experiment’s results differently based on how they now see the topic. If the subject of the observation is aware that they are being watched, they may then change their conduct. Studies that use double-blind procedures are often used to combat observer bias.

15. Basic attribution error

This bias refers to a person’s propensity to blame another person’s specific behaviour on preexisting, unjustified prejudices while placing the blame for their comparable conduct on outside sources. For instance, when a team member arrives late to a crucial meeting, you can think they are unmotivated or unreliable without considering internal and external issues like sickness or a traffic accident. However, when you are running behind schedule due to a flat tire, you anticipate that other people would blame the outside circumstance (the flat tire) rather than your actions.

16. Hiring bias

When determining whether a candidate is qualified for a position, we often have an opinion, prejudice, or inclination about them, known as hiring bias. These judgments and sentiments could be based on anything, such as the people’s appearance, dialect, or area of residence.

This bias develops due to our brains’ shortcuts to speed up decision-making. The candidate lives in an affluent neighborhood. It must imply that she is successful and will do well in her position. Or maybe the candidate has three children. It must imply that he will be too focused on household responsibilities.

17. Religion bias

Religious prejudice arises when a person’s membership in a religious group is assumed or prejudged rather than their qualities. Stereotyping is one of the most widespread examples of prejudice (religious or otherwise).