Bias

Strategies to use to evaluate bias: Is this balanced (shows more than one perspective) or one-sided? Is this factual or opinionated? Does this use strong language (positive or negative connotations)? What kind of tone is being set?

The management had a bias against older job applicants, so they tended to hire younger employees. Because she had heard conservative views her entire life, Maria had a natural bias toward those ideas. When all of the Native American applicants for an apartment were denied in favor of white applicants, the authorities investigated to see if there was racial bias involved.

Does everyone have a bias? What causes bias? Why do you think it’s important to be aware of bias? Strategies to use to evaluate bias: Is this balanced (shows more than one perspective) or one-sided? Is this factual or opinionated? Does this use strong language (positive or negative connotations)? What kind of tone is being set?

Which of these examples is more biased? How do you know? Long-term solitary confinement in prisons is an unfair practice and needs to stop. Locking someone up indefinitely without human contact is cruel and unusual torture, and psychological studies have proven that it can drive people crazy. The law needs to get its act together and ban this brutal punishment.   Because of new evidence, prisons are re-examining their use of long-term solitary confinement. Some prison officials explain that this isolation is used to protect prisoners from harming themselves or others. However, evidence showing that solitary confinement can cause depression and other psychological problems is prompting law-makers to rethink its use in American prisons.