Bias and Stereotype

What do you think of my new glasses? Would you say they make me look “smart?”

If you said “yes,” why?

If I take them off, my intelligence doesn’t change.

(But I do need these to read the script.)

People with glasses being smarter is just one example of a stereotype, a widely held concept that’s oversimplified and is not always true.

Stereotypes are commonly believed, but that doesn’t make them correct or logical. As writers and readers, we may be tempted to let our beliefs override the facts. When this happens, it’s called bias.

Bias and stereotypes both place opinions before facts, which can damage the integrity of your writing—and if you’re doing research, you’ll want to avoid them in your sources, too.

Bias

Let’s start with bias. Bias happens when someone’s opinions change the way they present facts. They might bend the truth to make something look better or worse based on their own feelings. Biased portrayals are typically unfair, and they don’t give a complete understanding of a topic.

Now, let’s talk about a few common types of bias that you may encounter when looking for sources: agenda, omission, and sensationalism.

Agenda

An agenda is the underlying motives or intentions of a person or group. Does the author have a reason to misrepresent or twist the facts?

For example, if you saw an article explaining that cheeseburgers are healthy for you, you might be pleasantly surprised, and start ordering one right away. But wait! Ask yourself a few questions. Who wrote the article? What website was it on? Who funded the research?

You may dig a little deeper and find that the post was sponsored by Burger Jeff’s™, a burger company. Their pretty clear agenda is to sell more cheeseburgers! It helps them if you think cheeseburgers are flawless and amazing. This may lead them to portray things in a dishonest or incomplete way. That’s a classic example of bias!

Omission

Omission is defined as “something left out, neglected, or undone.” In the context of writing, it’s basically everything that isn’t included in the piece. If a source is biased, it may completely leave out any facts and ideas that don’t support its agenda.

Let’s bring it back to the cheeseburger example, and I promise it’s not just because I’m hungry. Let’s say the article fixates completely on the protein content of cheeseburgers. When that’s all you look at, it’s easy to make them seem healthy! But you may notice that the article doesn’t mention fat or sodium at all—two things burgers often contain an unhealthy amount of. The article omitted these facts because of its pro-burger bias! Shame on you, Burger Jeff!

Since omission refers to things that are NOT found in the writing, it can be hard to identify at first. You can be on the lookout for gaps in context or unanswered questions, but omission, like all types of bias, is easiest to identify when you read and compare multiple sources.

Sensationalism

Another way to identify bias is sensationalism, defined as “the use of exciting or shocking stories or language,” usually at the expense of accuracy. When looking at sources, we want to be on the lookout for extreme word choices. For example, words like “wonderful” and “awful” indicate opinions, not facts.

Sensationalism is often seen as an appeal to emotion. Good scholarly works and sources are typically created to educate or inform. When a source goes out of its way to make you feel a certain emotion, that could be a clue that it’s biased.

For example, let’s imagine three articles about…er, let’s move on from cheeseburgers. Let’s say it’s three articles about a new stadium being built in your town.

The first article uses words like “exciting,” “fun,” and “vibrant.” Words like these are meant to make you feel positive. The second article calls the stadium “cumbersome” and laments about “months of loud, ugly construction.” Those word choices indicate a negative opinion.

The best source would be article number 3, which sticks to names, dates, and quotes. “Construction will start in May 2025, with the owner stating they ‘plan to be ready for the 2026 season.’” No emotions to be seen. That sort of neutral tone may seem boring at first, but it helps us trust a source when we know they’re focused on the facts.

Review of Bias

So, to review, 3 commonly used types of bias are agenda, omission, and sensationalism.

Ask yourself before reading any source:

• Does anyone involved in creating this article stand to gain or lose anything?
• Are there any glaring holes or gaps in the information or context?
• Is the word choice fair and neutral?

It’s also important to ask ourselves these questions about our own writing. You may have an opinion about a topic you’re writing about, and that’s totally okay. You just have to make sure you’re aware of it so you can avoid showing bias in your writing. Make sure you don’t use biased language or leave out important information. Separate yourself from your bias and allow yourself to learn new things that may challenge your beliefs.

Next, let’s delve a bit deeper into stereotypes.

Stereotypes

Let’s look at a common riddle:

A father and son are in a car accident, after which they are rushed to the hospital. The boy is taken to surgery, where the surgeon is shocked to see him and says, “I cannot operate on this boy. He is my son.” How is this possible?

Many are stumped by this riddle at first. Wasn’t the father just in a car accident? There’s no way he’d be back at work. But the answer is extremely simple: the surgeon was the child’s mother. Looking back, this seems quite obvious, but because of stereotypes, many people picture a male surgeon in their mind.

This is an example of a harmful or negative stereotype about people, because it is sexist. Stereotypes may also be racist, homophobic, or derogatory in other ways, but this is not always the case.

Stereotypes don’t need to be negative to be harmful. One example being the Model Minority Myth. LearningForJustice.org says that “This myth characterizes Asian Americans as a polite, law-abiding group who have achieved a higher level of success than the general population through some combination of innate talent and pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps immigrant striving.”

While it may seem positive, it creates unrealistic expectations, pressures to conform, and ignores the diversity and challenges within Asian American communities. It can also contribute to divisions between minority groups by setting a benchmark for comparison.

There are also stereotypes that aren’t about people. For example, a stereotype about cats is that they are independent animals. However, cats, like all pets, require engagement and responsible care from their owners.

As members of society, we’ve all heard stereotypes, and may believe many of them. But even if we set their harmfulness aside, they still give only a surface-level understanding of any topic. For a piece of writing to be interesting and unique, the author needs to understand things on a fuller level than stereotypes can offer.

One way to get past stereotypes about groups of people is to learn from diverse perspectives. It is important to hear voices from various backgrounds and experiences. This will make you more empathetic and help you gain a deeper and more complete understanding.

To review: bias and stereotype are not the same thing, but they can both harm the integrity of written work by getting in the way of the facts. To avoid them, it helps to use a wider variety of sources. This will help you notice bias and stereotypes and overcome them in your work.

That’s all for this review. I’m off to Jeff’s Burgers!

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