A Discussion on Bias

by Gregory Buchmann

We cannot have a discussion without first a discussion of bias.   Bias is the personal experiences and point of view of the parties engaged in the discussion.   My personal bias is that I am a registered Republican.   However, I can further indicate that I did not vote for President Trump, and you can place me in the group called "Never Trumper!"   Perhaps this is because, above bias is ethics.   I believe that it is easily seen that Donald Trump has no ethics that I would agree with.   I did vote in the Michigan Primary this most recent Tuesday.   I did vote on the Michigan Republican Primary Ballot.   And again, I proud to indicate that I did not vote for President Trump in the Tuesday Michigan primary ballot. Read into this paragraph what your own personal bias indicates, but I think I fairly well describe my opinion.

Diversity and Bias

An important technique to overcome bias is to ensure diversity in the group discussion.   Differing perspectives allow to ensure that parties engaged in the discussion feel as though their point of view is heard and understood.

Having exposure to other people, cultures, traditions, and experineces ensure that better decision making is made.   Learning these skills allow for a more worldy view of the topic and lead to more productivity to a positive outcome.

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Agreement and Bias

A shared understanding by the parties involved in the discussion leads to a mutual agreement.   Or rather perhaps at least an understanding of the others point of view if an agreement cannot be reached.

Ensuring at all parties are involved in the discussion and included in the discussion is also very important.   When participation is low the likelyhood of an unstaisfactory outcome is increased.

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Here I am just adding a bunch of content to see what happens with the overflow when I add more and more ane more text to the box.

The Curse of Bias

The Curse of Knowledge is the assumption that just because you know something you assume others know the same thing.   Which of course is often not true.

And finally, Hindsight Bias, which is the assumption that once something has happened, you think you knew that it was going to happen all along.   Which is also often not the case.

Here I am just adding a bunch of content to see what happens with the overflow when I add more and more ane more text to the box.

Here I am just adding a bunch of content to see what happens with the overflow when I add more and more ane more text to the box.   The stuff in the yellow box over the way is supposed to not look good.































2020 Greg Buchmann.


For educational purposes only.