Types of Bias - Bias Analysis

As I said yesterday, a "bias" is an influence preventing a person from an objective analysis of the facts and/or arguments. It would be impossible to catalogue every type of influence that prevents objective analysis, but some of the more common biases include:

1. Temperament or personality type;

2. Mood;

3. Past experience;

4. Psychological trauma;

5. Persona animus towards an individual or group;

6. Ideology;

7. Partisan zeal;

8. Culture;

9. Various kinds of Emotions - Fear and Love are two good ones;

10. Groupthink; and

11. Our desire to maintain our current beliefs and avoid doubt.

I was tempted to put education on the list, but I think education created biases fall within the other categories. I also like to think of education in the Platonic sense of being given knowledge - as opposed to being misinformed - so I'm reluctant to include it as a biasing influence.

Regarding these influence categories, it is pretty easy to understand how each clouds our judgment - sometimes in tandem. It is also pretty easy to identify tangible measures we can take to minimize or undermine these influences. The exception is "temperament," which is neither well understood (by most people) nor escapable - and yet has considerable influence on the type of arguments and evidence that we'll each find convincing. I also agree with Charles Sanders Pierce, who pointed to No. 10 as the heavyweight biasing influence of human thinking.

At any rate, the reason I enumerated different types of biasing influences is because doing so illustrates an important element of any bias analysis - whether for yourself or others. Biases are influences that can be identified and understood - they can be named. Therefore, any claim that a person's analysis is biased should have two features - a plausible explanation demonstrating that the allegedly biased person misanalysed the facts and/or arguments, and a plausible identification of the influence(s) that is interfering with the person's analysis.

So far so good. Stay tuned.

Joe H.