Bias In Critical Thinking

Having taken AP Statistics and Silver Creek Leadership Academy 10 during Sophomore year at Silver Creek, I am well aware of the issues that biases can create when involved during scientific experiments and how they can affect a person's views. Bias, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "a tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly." (Merriam-Webster, Bias). Each and every person has a set of beliefs that they follow. These beliefs may have been a result of a variety of situations like housing location, marital status, parental beliefs, etc. And according to The Believing Brain: Why Science is the Only Way Out of Belief-Dependent Realism, "After forming our beliefs, we then defend, justify and rationalize them with a host of intellectual
reasons, cogent arguments, and rational explanations." (The Believing Brain, 1st Paragraph).
The previous quote indicates that after a person has developed his/her belief on a subject, they find evidence that supports their view so they will be prepared to defend their belief. The only problem with opinions is what I learned in Mrs. Vigil's SCLA 10 class, "not one theory is correct to explain the actual world..." Since different views exist, everyone has biases towards something, whether it be a racial group, religion, or company. Outlined in The Believing Brain were four types of bias: Anchoring Bias, Authority Bias, Belief Bias, and Confirmation Bias. Anchoring Bias is the tendency towards retaining a specific piece of evidence to support a conclusion. The only problem is that no other evidence is used to prove or disprove the conclusion. Authority Bias is created when someone bases their beliefs off the beliefs of someone of a higher power than them. Belief Bias is exemplified when someone bases their opinions off the plausibility of something occurring. Lastly, Confirmation Bias appears when a person uses evidence that supports their belief but disregards all evidence that may show their belief is
false. Despite all of the possibilities for biases to occur, the scientific community has developed and used a system for many years that help hamper the possibility of bias. This system is known as the Scientific Method. This method has been adopted because it is a way that all experiments are conducted in a similar fashion. This helps reduce the amount of bias that develops because all experiments, assuming they followed the scientific method and used a detailed procedure, can be replicated. The use of double-blinding in a study also helps reduce the amount of bias because neither the experimenter nor the participant knows whether or not they are being tested or are receiving the placebo. The Scientific Method is a genuinely useful tool for helping scientist and the community from being a victim of bias due to it providing a set of instructions for which an experiment should follow.