Individual bias

Revision as of 22:19, 3 March 2004 by 142.177.92.200 (talk) (why it helps too)

Individual bias is a persistent point of view or limited list of such points of view that one applies ("parent", "academic", "professional", or etc.).

It is one of the origins of editorial bias but is usually rooted in a w:cognitive bias (one's "life" and the events of it), w:cultural bias and w:confirmation bias (one's "loyalty" to a group and its ideals) and also the w:infrastructural capital (one's "locality" and environment that affords one daily actions, e.g. roads and stairs versus rivers and trees).

It is not possible to simply lose one's bias. But one can challenge it or ask it to be challenged, e.g. by entering an w:adversarial process. Making this a habit can be dangerous, as the individual's unique perspective is also the source of their creativity - which is itself a form of unique bias.

The idea of recreation' can be taken to mean re-creation of one's individual capital. Methodological pluralism suggests that one must from time to time behave according to the opposite of rules one usually applies. This is actually the principle behind some festivals, like Mardi Gras.

Groupthink is usually a function of failing to challenge biases, which just lets them be summed up to become a sort of group opinion, e.g. as in an echo chamber.

Factions are useful in part because they reinforce some explicit biases that everyone knows about (because the factionally defined terms make it pretty clear what this explicit basis for unity is), but also require the individual to make some compromises on their other biases to get along socially. In other words, the instructional capital of the faction shapes individual capital and integrates it to help build social capital. One may well ask whether there is really any other way to do this.