Identifying Bias
Believe it or not, everyone is biased all the time—including you! But bias isn’t
something to be ashamed of or embarrassed by. Bias simply means that your
thoughts and opinions about topics are influenced by your personal feelings or
experiences. Almost anytime that you read text or listen to speakers, you must
remember to judge how a person’s feelings and experiences may be influencing what
they are saying or writing before deciding whether or not you agree with them!
2.
To identify bias, you must:
1.
Determine what central point the author or speaker is trying to make:
Most authors and speakers are attempting to communicate a central point
to readers and listeners. This is essentially the main idea of their message.
You must identify this main idea before you can determine if an author or
speaker is biased. Be on the lookout for any specific actions that the writer
or speaker wants you to take.
Determine who the author or speaker is: Before you can determine if an
author’s bias is affecting what they are writing or saying, you must find out
as much as you can about them—remember, bias is caused by a person’s
feelings and experiences! You can’t determine bias until you know a little
something about what feelings or experiences an author is likely to have
had.
Let’s practice. Identify the central message in the following text:
Figure out who the author or speaker works for. That will tell you a lot
about their experiences and expertise. How old are they? Could that
influence their feelings or attitudes towards this topic? Does your speaker
have special skills or expertise in any area?
What is Olesen’s central message?
“Today’s children are heading down the wrong path,” Olesen wrote in his
letter to the school newspaper. “They have forgotten how to work hard
and how to behave. Unless we make decisions for them and set very strict
rules as a school, we will fail to raise them properly.”
What action—if any—does Olesen want?
Work carefully at knowing your speaker! It’s one of the most important
steps when trying to identify bias.
Let’s practice. Read the text below and list as many details as you can about
the speaker:
65-year old Danish school teacher Magnus Olesen was angry. He had just
learned that the principal of his school had decided to allow students to
wear hats in class. As a former military man, that decision didn’t sit well
with him. “Students who wear hats in class are disrespectful to their
teachers,” Olesen said.
How old is Olesen?
What job does he currently have?
3.
Be on the lookout for loaded words, stereotypes or one-sided
arguments: There are three specific hints that will help readers to identify
biased authors or speakers. They are:
a.
b.
c.
What job did he used to have?
Loaded Words: Loaded words are words that have strong
emotions behind them. They are usually negative.
Stereotypes: Stereotypes label all members of a group as being
the same. This often results in prejudice.
One-Sided Arguments: This happens when writers present only
one side of a situation.
Let’s practice. Find any loaded words, stereotypes or one-sided arguments
in the following text:
“Think about how we were raised,” continued Olesen, “Our parents never
spoiled us. If we misbehaved, we were always punished. Today’s children
are completely unruly and horrendous in class. They never pay attention,
always have iPods in their ears, and refuse to do any of their work. ”
Do you see any loaded—or emotional—words?
Do you see any stereotypes?
Is this a one-sided argument? Why?
4.
5.
Decide whether or not you agree with the author or speaker: Once
you’ve worked through these four steps, you will have a good idea about
how an author’s bias is affecting his thoughts and ideas. Now you have to
decide whether or not you agree with him or her!
Remember that like an opinion, bias is never “right” or “wrong.” Bias can
be “good” or “bad” though, depending on the expertise of the author or
the facts that s/he uses to back up their bias. Once you are aware of an
author or speaker’s bias, you can form your own opinion.
Let’s practice. Record your reaction to Olesen’s comments about discipline
and students. What about his thoughts do you agree with? What about his
thoughts do you disagree with? Why?
What more information would you want to know before you decided
whether or not to agree/disagree with Olesen?
Brainstorm all of the ways that an author or speaker’s experiences
may have influenced their thoughts and ideas: Once you know a bit
about the author or speaker’s history, identified the central message of their
thoughts and found loaded words, stereotypes and/or one-sided arguments,
you have all of the information that you need to know to brainstorm how a
speaker’s experiences may have influenced their thoughts and ideas.
Identifying bias is a pretty complex process, isn’t it?! You have to think really
carefully in order to determine how an author or speaker’s experiences might be
influencing their ideas. It’s an essential process, though, because authors and
speakers are almost always biased.
It is a good idea to make a list of these potential biases.
Record a few final thoughts about identifying bias. What surprised you? What
hadn’t you thought of? What is the most difficult part of identifying bias? How can
you practice these skills and steps? When will you start?
Let’s practice. List all of ways that Olesen’s experiences may be influencing
his thoughts and ideas about the need for rules in school:
How might Olesen’s age affect his thoughts and ideas about rules?
How might Olesen’s military background affect his thoughts and ideas about rules?
Are there any other factors that may be influencing his thoughts and ideas about the
students in his classroom?