Know your bias

xkcd: Survivorship Bias

Are you biased? Would you know if you were?

Statistics views biases as something to be avoided or corrected, and for good reason, because statistics typically seeks to use a sample to represent an entire 'population'. But I recently heard a new take on it which advocated that you should use your bias in doing data analysis, data visualisations and decision making.

In order to use your biases the first thing to know is that everyone is biased due to their differing circumstances, and of course being human. The idea is that a person will have a unique point of view which is valuable, but that it won't be possible to fully understand others point of view or how that point of view will affect others. Therefore the key is collaborating with others that have different biases, with some level of understand of your biases and those of your collaborators.

In many ways this is no different to the statistical approach but rather than trying to find the 'average' person you are acknowledging that everyone is different and will therefore carry their own biases. So rather than increasing the sample size your are collaborating with other and rather than applying corrections your are attempting to better understanding your own circumstances and those of others.

This of course needs to be a bit nuanced, and care needs to be taken in order to ensure option doesn't wander too far from truth (or at least the best possible understand of the truth), but in the right environment I think using biases does have the potential to inform good decisions.

Check out:
both from the Data Stories podcast if you want to learn more...

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