Your Opinion: Bias and research

Dear Editor:

In reading the LTEs over the past few months, especially the controversial ones, I'm reminded of two damaging characteristics of human nature, bias, and reluctance to research.

Bias is defined as: Disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. Wikipedia lists 36 biases, but perhaps the one we see the most today is confirmation bias. "Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms one's beliefs or hypotheses while giving disproportionately less attention to information that contradicts it. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position."

Reluctance to research - In this day of the internet it's near ridiculous to not fact check issues, as there are numerous locations that provide this valuable service, e.g. PolitiFact, Washington Posts Fact Checker, FactCheck.org, Snopes, TruthorFiction.com, Lead Stories, Hoax Slayer, FullFact.org, and MediaBiasFactCheck.com (MBFC News). And, there are others, though several have been proven to be unreliable sources and have been left off this list.

That's not to say that finding "absolute truth" on any issue is easy, because biases have to be set aside, and cross checking among these sources does not always result in 100 percent agreement. But these are all considered reliable sources, and with all the conflicting claims of false information we are inundated with, it seems ludicrous to not do some fact checking rather than just relying on our "unresearched opinions" and biases.

One controversial issue providing many LTE's is climate change. After doing my own fact checking, I am convinced the best way to keep the planet healthy for us and for our children is to support a carbon fee and dividend, such as the Energy Innovation Act. Please lay aside your biases and take the time to research the Energy Innovation Act at CCLUSA.Org. I think you will see it benefits us all.