Knowing what it means to be biased is very important in the modern world. Here is everything you need to know about the meaning of biased!

Understanding bias is essential to living in the modern world. Knowing how to recognize it in the world around you and within yourself can lead to tolerance and growth. Recognizing bias the foundation of critical thinking and helps you see the world more accurately for what it is.

Here is what the word biased means, where it comes from, and how to use it in the world today!

What Does Biased Mean?

The American English dictionary defines “biased” (ˈbaɪəst, bi-ased) as:

A preference for one thing over another.
An inclination against something else.
More than others, a tendency or disposition toward some person or persons (or thing), Partiality in judgment or opinion.
Undue influence by passion or interest.

Biased can be caused by many things: past experiences, upbringing, and culture all play a part in what we think about other people and situations. Prejudices are also often accompanied by stereotypes — beliefs about specific groups of people that aren’t based on actual experience but information learned from others (or the media).

Biased is often used to describe someone who has a negative opinion about something or someone. For example, if you say that a particular news network is biased, you think they consistently report on stories in a way that is unfair to one political party.

On the other hand, bias can also be used as a positive word: A chef may be known for his “bias” toward certain types of food (for example, he might love Korean cuisine). This doesn’t mean he’s prejudiced against any culture — he just really loves Korean food!

If you were to look in a thesaurus for word lists of synonyms for the word biased, you would likely find words like:

Prejudice
Influence
Sway
Weight
Predisposed
Favoritism
Warped
Partial
Discriminatory
One-sided

What Is the Etymology of the Word Biased?

Like many other words in the English language, the original origin of the word is in the Greek language. The original word that it comes from is epikarsios, which essentially translates to the word “oblique.” This is because biases tend to be off-balance and partial to one direction.

As time went on, the word was incorporated into other languages, including Norwegian, French, and Latin. In the mid 16th century, bias became a new word used commonly in academic and rhetorical studies. Following that, the term found its modern meanings.

How Is Biased Used in the Modern World?

When someone has a bias toward another person or group of people, their feelings about them will affect how they approach them in certain situations — even if those feelings aren’t logical at all!

When you assume the expected value of something or someone, it tends to affect your viewpoint of the parameters and realities of the situation. This might result in creating a biased report or response in your mind, which will skew your perception of whatever thing you’re already biased towards or against.

For example, you might feel like your coworker isn’t very smart because he’s always late to meetings. However, when it comes time to give him feedback on his performance evaluation and raise requests, you find yourself doubting yourself instead of giving him honest feedback. This is because you think “he just can’t handle constructive criticism,” which is an example of biased judgment.

An excellent way to tell if something is biased is if it’s not supported with evidence or facts. Rather than being based on fact-based research and analysis, it reflects an opinion — usually one based on personal beliefs or experiences instead of objective facts.

Example Sentences Using the Word Biased

One of the best ways to learn how to use a word is by seeing it used in example sentences. That’s how people learned to speak as children, and that’s still one of the most effective ways to understand words and language more robustly and realistically.

Once you know how the term is used in these sentences, feel free to start learning how to use it in your day-to-day conversations!

The marginalized people were deeply frustrated by the unfairness that the other political party advocated for with their biased viewpoint.

The test was conducted in a double-blind manner to ensure that there wouldn’t be a biased sample recorded by the researchers.

When I went to New York, I went to many different breweries, and even though I’m biased against IPAs, I still enjoyed my fair share of them.

All of the collocations that we find in the word of the day feature on the website were likely due to the biased interests of the people picking the words.

Mary offered a very obviously biased account of the trial, making it hard for me to decide who was really guilty.

The homeowners association was biased against the random house at the end of the street simply because its architecture didn’t fit the neighborhood’s aesthetic.

Conclusion

If you want to further expand your knowledge of the English language, then you’ve come to the right place! Here at The Word Counter, it’s our goal to help people learn how to communicate in the most effective ways possible. That means learning how to understand individual words in the most accurate, relevant, and dynamic way possible.

Our blog here at The Word Counter is made to do exactly that. If you want to learn how to use words, grammar rules, and phrases in a much more effective and powerful way, feel free to take a look around! We’re here to help people succeed in the modern world, and learning how to communicate powerfully is one of the best ways to do that — The Word Counter is here to make that possible.

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Kevin Miller is a growth marketer with an extensive background in Search Engine Optimization, paid acquisition and email marketing. He is also an online editor and writer based out of Los Angeles, CA. He studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google and became infatuated with English Grammar and for years has been diving into the language, demystifying the do's and don'ts for all who share the same passion! He can be found online here.