Bias
From Freepedia
- For other senses of this word, see bias (disambiguation).
- For Wikipedia's policy on avoiding bias, see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.
A bias is a prejudice in a general or specific sense, usually in the sense for having a predilection to one particular point of view or ideology. One is said to be biased if one is influenced by one's biases. A bias could, for example, lead one to accept or not-accept the truth of a claim, not because of the strength of the claim itself, but because it does or does not correspond to one's own preconceived ideas.
For example, having an Americo-centric point of view (that is, the point of view of an American, in particular one from the US) is a bias, as is having a particular point of view of any other country.
In practice, accusations of bias can also result from unacknowledged bias on the part of the critic. If a critic takes their own preexisting view as a priori balanced without acknowledging their own potential biases, any person or organization that disagrees with it is automatically viewed as biased regardless of that person or organization's actual efforts at balance. This is particularly common in discussion of media outlets such as CNN, Fox News Channel, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, etc. (For example, Bill O'Reilly has made accusations of liberal bias against the staunchly conservative Globe and Mail, while people that disagree with O'Reilly accuse him of bias.) Note that this does not necessarily mean that these media outlets don't have identifiable biases, but only that when evaluating claims of bias, one should always take the political viewpoint of the critic into account as well. (See also objectivity.)
A systematic bias is a bias resulting from some system.
Everyone has bias. The important thing is whether one realizes it and tries to minimize its negative impact.
