Bias and Objectivity Scientific Ways of Knowing #2

Vocabulary Bias Objective

Understanding Bias Read the following report: –Pigeons are dirtier than you think. They eat trash and leave their droppings wherever they go. Pigeons also carry diseases. One time, I was bitten by a pigeon when I tried to shoo it away. I had to get a shot because the pigeon might have given me a disease.

Understanding Bias How does the writer feel about pigeons? _______________________________________ Does the writer say anything positive about pigeons? For instance, he or she could have mentioned that pigeons are very successful at living around people. It appears that the writer has a strong opinion about pigeons and that facts may not change that opinion.

What is Bias? One kind of bias is a strong opinion about something. You can be biased in favor of something or biased against it. In either case, you may have some facts to support your position, but a bias is based more on feelings and opinions than on facts.

What is Bias? In some cases, bias results from a person’s past experiences. What happened to the author of the report that caused them to have a bias against pigeons?____________________________

Scientific Bias Bias is the tendency, either conscious or not, to favor some results or explanations over others. Science tries to describe and explain the world as it really is, not the world as people would like it to be or think it should be.

Avoiding Bias When reporting scientific data, a person needs to be objective in their description. To be objective means to base descriptions on facts, rather than on thoughts and opinions.

Avoiding Bias When a scientist reports the results of an experiment, he or she must fully describe the experiment that produced those results. State how this practice can reduce the effect of personal bias in scientific work. ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ____________

Practice A scientist ignores some data from her experiment that do not support the conclusion she wants to make in her paper. This is an example of: a.An objective report b.An inference c.A bias d.An explanation