Bias — What Is It? And When Is It Bad?
In cognitive science, 'bias' does not necessarily imply anything bad
Some biases are unproblematic or even good
So we cannot infer that something is bad simply because it involves bias
Biases may need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis—and we may disagree about how to do that
Bias is a hot topic. Many people have expressed concern about bias in admissions, hiring, policing, sentencing, social media moderation, and many other aspects of society. The worry is that biases like these could have undesirable impacts. However, not all biases are obviously detrimental. Further, some biases may be good. So bias is not always cause for concern. If that is surprising, then you may want to know what I mean by 'bias'. In this post, I'll provide a brief description of how 'bias' is used in cognitive science and the ways that we can evaluate biases.
1. What Do I Mean By 'Bias'?
Many of us tend to buy from some brands' products rather than others: Mac vs. PC, Starbucks vs. Dunkin, eBay vs. Amazon, etc. Cognitive scientists often refer to such measurable differences in our responses as biases.
We can measure biases in many ways. For example, we can measure the frequency with which I choose one brand over another. Or we can measure the time it takes me to determine whether I like one brand vs. its competitors. For example, if I tend to buy Apple products more than their competitors' products and be faster to decide that I like an Apple product than a similar product from another company, then I seem to exhibit a measurable bias in favor of Apple products (over their alternatives).
Of course, decision frequency and timing are just a few forms of bias. There are many more (Petty et al., 1997).
2. Is Bias Always Bad?
Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and other social categories is widely considered bad. The point of this post is not to dispute the badness of such biases. However, many biases are probably not considered so problematic. For example, you may not care if we tend to pronounce or comprehend certain syllables faster than others.
Moreover, some biases may be good. For instance, you (rightly) believe that logically sound arguments are superior to fallacious arguments.
There are a few implications of such unproblematic or even beneficial biases. One implication is the bias fallacy (Byrd, 2017): inferring that something is wrong or bad solely because of a bias that it exhibits.
3. What Makes A Bad Bias Bad?
If we cannot infer badness or wrongness from the mere existence of a bias, then how do we determine whether biases are bad? We may need to evaluate each instance of bias on a case-by-case basis. However, there is more than one way to evaluate biases. Consider just a few.
Consequentialists evaluate biases according to their consequences—e.g., whether they produce unjust inequalities or increase overall harm. Deontologists evaluate biases by their intrinsic features—e.g., whether they involve malicious intent or constitute unacceptable behavior. Pluralists may embrace both kinds of evaluations (as well as others).
So evaluating biases on our own is a challenge, but evaluating biases together may be even more difficult. After all, if you and I have a reasonable disagreement about the proper way to evaluate a bias, then we may arrive at a stalemate about whether a given bias is bad.
4. Who Cares?
Many people get nervous or defensive as soon as I mention that I study bias (e.g., Byrd, 2019). They seem to assume that 'bias' always refers to some kind of pernicious prejudice. While this is sometimes correct, there are exceptions—and determining which cases are exceptional is hard work. So, when discussing the cognitive science of bias, we may find the need to highlight these exceptions and their implications. One way to do that is to refer to this post.