The fan who wrote the review
A review says, "The Brightwire laptop is perfect." It is written by a Brightwire fan club member. He has never used any other laptop.
He is not lying. He just leans one way. That lean has a name.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Bias | an unfair lean towards one side or one idea | |
| Conscious bias | bias you know you have | |
| Unconscious bias | bias you do not know you have | |
| Author bias | the writer or owner gives their own opinion with no balance | a maker praising its own product |
| Confirmation bias | you look for facts that match what you already think | |
| Selection bias | the people, groups or data are picked in a way that is not fair or random | |
| Cultural bias | you assume everyone shares the habits and norms of your own society | |
| Availability bias | you judge by the latest or most vivid thing you remember |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can name five kinds of bias and give an example of each from my own work.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
The five kinds of bias
| Kind | In plain words | A support example |
|---|---|---|
| Author bias | The writer or owner gives only their own view | A firm says its own help desk tool is the best |
| Confirmation bias | You look for facts that match your idea | You believe the cable is faulty, so you read only pages about bad cables |
| Selection bias | The sample is picked unfairly | You ask only the staff who like the new system |
| Cultural bias | You assume your own norms are everybody's | A form that has only one name box, when some people have more names |
| Availability bias | The latest or most vivid memory rules | After a news story, you think ransomware is the only risk |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Conscious and unconscious
A seller who praises their own product may know it. That is conscious bias. A technician who always trusts one brand because it never failed once may not know it. That is unconscious bias.
Any of the five kinds can be either. The fix is the same: look for it on purpose.
Check
Have a go
Check
4 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.