Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Dismissed

One of the most annoying traits of public debate in recent years is how often people dismiss one another’s views out of hand. Too often I hear people proclaim, “Well, that’s just your opinion” or “Well, you’re biased.” These dismissals ignore the possibility that an opinion has been arrived at through deep reflection and are a way of not having to engage in any real thought about a subject.

The inaccurate charge of bias is one that particularly annoys me. Bias is a real issue in academic debate. It is something that scholars and students are urged to avoid. We’re also taught to look for it in the sources we use for our research. It really does exist, but too often in public debate it is assumed from someone’s viewpoint. Ironically, though not surprisingly, it is often present in the very people who charge others with this argumentative fault. People's own biases can so blind them to the facts that the only reason they can see for someone else to draw different conclusions must be bias.

The academic definition of bias is “A preference or an inclination, esp[ecially] one that inhibits impartial judgment” (American Heritage College Dictionary). So, for example, a Democrat might be prone to support President Obama’s policies since he, too, is a Democrat. Similarly, a Democrat may have been more critical of a Republican President such as George W. Bush. That kind of partisan bias occurs all the time, and it is wise to be on the lookout for it. However, it is possible for someone to support a member of their own party, to stay with the political example, without exhibiting bias.

So, how do we tell the difference between an opinion that is overly influenced by bias and one that is not?

The real answer to this question is that we can’t always tell; however, we can take steps to help us find out. Research is a key tool in helping to determine a person’s bias.

For example, let’s say you read an article by a particular political pundit. By reading this article you find out that when the Republicans were in charge, the pundit supported certain key policies. If you only read this one article, you might assume that he has a Republican bias. But if you read another article by the pundit -- one written as a new Democratic administration announces that it will continue those same policies -- and the pundit continues to support them, then we can be pretty sure that he wasn’t supporting those policies just because they were proposed by Republicans. Of course, the pundit might have other biases that contribute to his support of those policies, but through our research we’ve eliminated one of them.

Detecting true bias is very difficult. We all have biases that influence how we develop opinions. The key to honest debate is to try to recognize bias (our own and that of others) and mitigate it by keeping an open mind. We must remain open to new information that might change our opinion of a subject. This is very difficult to do even when we are aware.

What we can do rather easily is stop using the charge of bias as a cheap way of dismissing what others think. If your opinions are so fragile that you can’t bear to hear what someone else has to say, perhaps they aren’t worth keeping.

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