Bias Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individ ...

is an inclination toward something, or a predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, or predilection. Bias may also refer to:

Scientific method and statistics

* The bias introduced into an experiment through a confounder * Algorithmic bias, machine learning algorithms that exhibit politically unacceptable behavior * Cultural bias, interpreting and judging phenomena in terms particular to one's own culture * Funding bias, bias relative to the commercial interests of a study's financial sponsor * Reactivity bias, a bias resulting from participants behaving differently when they know they are being observed. In survey research this is sometimes called response bias. ** Hawthorne effect, often relates to improving performance in response to an intervention ** John Henry effect, sometimes relates to a behavioural change due to rivalry between groups, which may have negative outcomes ** Observer-expectancy effect, is when researcher expectations influence participant behaviour (see also Pygmalion effect) ** Social-desirability bias, is when participants adapt their behaviour to what they perceive to be social norms and expectations * Infrastructure bias, the influence of existing social or scientific infrastructure on scientific observations * Publication bias, bias toward publication of certain experimental results *

Bias (statistics) In the field of statistics, bias is a systematic tendency in which the methods used to gather data and estimate a sample statistic present an inaccurate, skewed or distorted ('' biased'') depiction of reality. Statistical bias exists in numer ...

, the systematic distortion of a statistic ** Biased sample, a sample falsely taken to be typical of a population ** Estimator bias, a bias from an estimator whose expectation differs from the true value of the parameter * Personal equation, a concept in 19th- and early 20th-century science that each observer had an inherent bias when it came to measurements and observations * Reporting bias, a bias resulting from what is and is not reported in research, either by participants in the research or by the researcher.

Cognitive science

* Cognitive bias, any of a wide range of effects identified in cognitive science. ** Confirmation bias, tendency of people to favor information that confirm their beliefs of hypothesis ** See List of cognitive biases for a comprehensive list

Mathematics and engineering

* Exponent bias, the constant offset of an exponent's value * Inductive bias, the set of assumptions that a machine learner uses to predict outputs of given inputs that it has not encountered. * Weight and bias, two terms used to describe parameters in a neural network. * Seat bias, any bias in a method of apportionment that favors either large or small parties over the other

Electricity

* Biasing, a voltage or current added to an electronic device to move its operating point to a desired part of its transfer function * Grid bias of a vacuum tube, used to control the electron flow from the heated cathode to the positively charged anode * Tape bias (also AC bias), a high-frequency signal (generally from 40 to 150 kHz) added to the audio signal recorded on an analog tape recorder

Places

* Bias, Landes, on the coast in southwestern France * Bias, Lot-et-Garonne, in southwestern France * Bias, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Bias Bay, now called Daya Bay, in Guangdong Province, China * Bias River, a river in north-western India

People

* Bias (mythology), multiple figures in Greek mythology * Bias Brahmin, a Brahmin community found in India * Bias of Priene, one of the Seven Sages of Greece * Bias, a Spartan commander caught in an ambush by the Athenian general Iphicrates * Fanny Bias (1789–1825), French dancer, one of the first who raised on pointes * Len Bias (1963–1986), American basketball player * Oliver Bias (born 2001), footballer * Tiffany Bias (born 1992), Thai basketball player

Organisations

BIAS Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individ ...

(Berkley Integrated Audio Software), a software company specializing in sound processing software such as Peak and SoundSoap * Bremer Institut für angewandte Strahltechnik (BIAS), a research institute dedicated to applied laser optics * Belgian International Air Services (BIAS), a former airline from Belgium (1959–80) * Birla Institute of Applied Sciences (BIAS), a higher education institute located in Bhimtal, Uttaranchal, India

In other areas

* ''Bias'' (book), a book by journalist Bernard Goldberg * ''Bias'' (bird), the genus of the black-and-white shrike-flycatcher * Bias (textile) of a woven fabric, the 45-degree diagonal line along which it is most stretchable * Bias frame, an image obtained from an opto-electronic image sensor, with no actual exposure time * Bias ratio (finance), an indicator used in finance to analyze the returns of investment portfolios, and in performing due diligence *

Media bias Media bias occurs when journalists and news producers show bias in how they report and cover news. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an ...

, the influence journalists and news producers have in selecting stories to report and how they are covered