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Bias

What is it? When humans place a disproportionate weight in favor of or against one thing, person, concept, audience, idea, belief or opinion. If bias is introduced unconsciously or consciously in any research study, it results in misleading data.

When is it best used? Checking your biases at every stage in a research study is critical to achieve reliable, unbiased results.

What does it entail? There are many types of bias. Examples of cognitive biases in research include confirmation, sequencing, recency, framing, and recruiting. It’s important researchers mitigate bias to the best of their ability by ensuring the following are thoughtfully, and equally, presented and/or delivered. 

  • Questions (wording, structure, styling)

  • Moderator performance and script (tone, inflection, sequence)

  • Stimuli (hierarchy, fidelity, call outs, titles)  

  • Outputs (notes, quotes, artifacts and other data including research presentations and deliverables)

Interchangeable term: prejudice, weight, skew, influence, sway

Use in a sentence: The participant’s selection was biased because the interviewer suggested that one option was better for men while the other was better for women.

Related terms: prejudice, weight, skew, influence, sway

Visual: No


Additional Resources

Books

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People


Articles



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Additional Resources from Curiosity Tank

How to Mitigate Bias Worksheet

Ask Like a Pro Plan Workshop