bias

«bias» in Mova's school dictionary: an unfair way of favouring one person, side or idea over… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a bias, biases; also uncountable); verb (bias, biases, biased, biasing)

meaning for a pupil

1) Bias is an unfair way of favouring one person, side or idea over others, often without good reason: a referee with a bias towards one team. tree →

2) To bias someone or something is to make them unfair or one-sided; «biased» means unfair and one-sided. tree →

3) In maths and science, bias is when results are pushed in one direction by the way you test or collect data, so they are not fair or accurate. tree →

4) In sewing, cutting cloth «on the bias» means cutting diagonally across the threads. tree →

5) In bowls (lawn bowls), the bias is the weight that makes the ball curve. tree →

sense in the lessons

In media and citizenship lessons pupils learn to spot bias in news, adverts and websites: who wrote it, what side they want you to take, and what is left out. In science and maths, a fair test avoids bias; a survey asking only your friends is biased. In computing lessons, AI can show bias if it learns from unfair examples. Phrases: biased towards, biased against, without bias, unconscious bias, bias in a survey.

examples

• The referee was accused of bias towards the home team. tree →
• This website is biased because it only shows one side. tree →
• Ask lots of different people so your survey is not biased. tree →
• A coin that lands on heads too often may have a bias. tree →
• Try to read the news without bias. tree →
• Everyone has some bias, so it helps to check other views. tree →
• The advert biased people towards buying the sweets. tree →
• AI can copy the bias in the data it learns from. tree →

note

Noun: countable or uncountable (a bias, biases; some bias). Adjective: biased (spelt with one s in most places; «biassed» is rare). Pronounced «BY-us». «Biased towards» means favouring; «biased against» means unfair against. In maths: a biased dice or coin does not give each result an equal chance, so probabilities like one half or one sixth do not apply.

In the corpora

• Blaming the referee, the equipment or a teammate after losing is a common habit called a self-serving bias.
• Partisan means strongly supporting one side; bias means leaning towards one side instead of being fair.
• Bias means leaning towards one side; a source is where information comes from.
• Remembering the times that fit your idea and forgetting the times that don't is called confirmation bias.
• Videos show the exciting moments; seeing only the winners and not the losers is called survivorship bias.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «bias» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.