Quotes About Bias

Our wants and needs distort to an unknown degree what we perceive. We block out a great deal of information that is potentially available if it does not fit our needs, expectations, preconceptions, and prejudgments.

Don't we all know how to ask questions? Of course we think we know how to ask, but we fail to notice how often even our questions are just another form of telling—rhetorical or just testing whether what we think is right. We are biased toward telling instead of asking because we live in a pragmatic, problem-solving culture in which knowing things and telling others what we know is valued.

we value task accomplishment over relationship building and either are not aware of this cultural bias or, worse, don't care and don't want to be bothered with it.

I often wonder whether a frumpy old woman can ever be quite fair in her estimate of a young and lovely one.

Whether actors express "resentment" or "hostility" toward minorities is largely irrelevant for the maintenance of white privilege.

Uno no puede andar por la vida reprobando a sus rivales y disculpando a sus amigos por el solo hecho de serlo.

The only thing worse than a knee-jerk liberal is a knee-pad conservative.

Whenever you "see" an issue or "understand" a concept, be conscious of the lens through which you're viewing the subject. You should assume you're introducing bias. The challenge remains to identify and let go of that bias or the assumptions you bring, and actively work to see and understand the subject anew.

Love is blind; hate is deaf.

Many of us believe that wrongs aren't wrong if it's done by nice people like ourselves.

The fewer clear facts you have in support of an opinion, the stronger your emotional attachment to that opinion.

How happy we would be if terrorists would adore their ideology less and question more. However, we don't like to apply that to ourselves; we think we're all right and the terrorists are wrong. But a terrorist to you is a martyr to the other side.

We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. That is why when two people look at something or someone, you get two different reactions. We see things and people not as they are, but as we are.

You are never in love with anyone. You're only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person.

We only see what we want to see.

closed my eyes, quietly adding casual racism to the charge sheet against Hawthorne

It's hard not to look at the road of the media and how the media is a big part of painting a picture for public opinion.

The publisher has told - you know, if these editors, Andres Martinez and Nick Goldberg, were the least bit honest about this, they would tell you the publisher has told them he wants the editorial page to be conservative.

There is no concept more generally cherished by publishers than that of the Undeserving Poor.

If you go to a big publishing house, editorial aside, it's completely white.

We should get rid of the SAT as fast as we can. Look, there are bigger problems in society. This is not the biggest problem we have. But it's so easy to get rid of it. Right? Just pull the plug.

I was not a fan of the Clash or, for that matter, any other punk band that existed.

The idea that we humans are good-natured, politically correct, nonjudgmental beings is pure fantasy. We are, at the very least, judgmental.

I don't want to paint everybody with the same broad brush. But I do think that the majority of folks now in the briefing room, that are going into journalism - they're not there for the facts and the pursuit of the truth.