Welcome to our collection of Bias Quotes, where we explore the intricate nuances of bias, its manifestations, and its impact on our lives. Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, shapes our perceptions, decisions, and interactions with the world around us. It influences how we interpret information, how we form judgments, and ultimately, how we navigate through the complexities of society.
Bias permeates every aspect of human existence, from the personal to the societal, from the trivial to the profound. It colors our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, often without us even realizing it. Understanding bias is essential for fostering empathy, promoting inclusivity, and dismantling the barriers that divide us. By acknowledging and confronting our biases, we can strive towards a more equitable and just world for all.
Below, you’ll find a curated selection of quotes from various thinkers, philosophers, activists, and leaders, each offering unique insights into the nature of bias and its ramifications. Feel free to explore these quotes, contemplate their meanings, and perhaps even use them to spark conversations or reflections on this crucial topic.
Not all information is created equal, which means kids need to learn how to recognize quality journalism that meets certain standards, such as having multiple sources and verified facts, being balanced, being fair, avoiding bias and putting information in context. Alisyn Camerota
Most people have a kind of survivor bias about luck. When something wonderful happens – when preparation meets opportunity, with excellent results – we think: ‘How lucky!’ But we don’t usually acknowledge all the times when things just… fizzle out. All the times when preparation comes to nothing. Marc Randolph
There is a rampant tendency in any industry where someone is trying to sell something with a bunch of data, where they cherry pick a little bit… bias a little bit. This becomes quite easy when there is an enormous amount of data to cherry pick from. Burt Rutan
I think the press has an interest in communicating to its viewers or readers, and their viewers or readers drive profit for those news organizations, so I think those news organizations have a certain bias toward their own readers. Yeah, I think they are a special interest. Of course they are. Mark McKinnon
It is a proof of our natural bias to evil, that gain is slower and harder than loss in all things good; but in all things bad getting is quicker and easier than getting rid of. Augustus Hare
The theory of cultural bias… is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It can’t be transplanted except to another variant of that organization. Mary Douglas
What offends me the most when I hear criticisms about this so-called Africa bias is how quick we are to focus on the words and propaganda of a few powerful, influential individuals, and to forget about the millions of anonymous people who suffer from their crimes. Fatou Bensouda
Fox News covers stories that some other news outlets won’t cover. We ask some questions that other news outlets wouldn’t ask. And sometimes that’s perceived as bias by people who’ve grown up in a world where there are only liberal outlets. Megyn Kelly
Anybody who has had the pleasure of reading an article about themselves in the press knows that, on the whole, there is a huge amount of inaccuracy, value judgment and the use of a crowbar to insert editorial bias that reflects the current political leaning of that particular paper. Jo Brand
The mainstream media has its own agenda. They do not want to print the facts. They have an agenda, they have a slant, they have a bias. It is outrageous to me. Curt Weldon
The scientific method is about trying to remove our own bias and subjectivity, and be as objective as possible. But then you can put it back into context and you’re allowed to be emotional and human about the way you engage with it. Alice Roberts
Science means constantly walking a tightrope between blind faith and curiosity; between expertise and creativity; between bias and openness; between experience and epiphany; between ambition and passion; and between arrogance and conviction – in short, between an old today and a new tomorrow. Heinrich Rohrer
Bias and prejudice are attitudes to be kept in hand, not attitudes to be avoided. Charles Curtis
We want to become a group that many people cheer for and trust without bias, no matter what kind of songs we sing, or what stage we stand on. Jennie
Hindsight bias makes surprises vanish. Daniel Kahneman
The biggest issue about the height factor is the bias that the NFL has about it. Doug Flutie
The stance I took was there is no room for racial bias anywhere in sports. I believe that was basically all I said about it. Certainly I was cast as an abolitionist. Death threats came. Hate mail came. Barry Larkin
Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds – habits and novelty. Jean de la Bruyere
On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. Nelson Mandela
I think by laying it out for the viewer I’m avoiding the issue of bias. Dan Abrams
I do not believe, given her past decisions and comments on the reasons to go to war in Iraq, that Dr. Rice will be able to represent the United States without a predetermined bias from the war. Daniel Akaka
If you’re not thinking about the way systemic bias can be propagated through the criminal justice system or predictive policing, then it’s very likely that, if you’re designing a system based on historical data, you’re going to be perpetuating those biases. Kate Crawford
Call it a case of observer bias on my part, but Humanist Paganism seems to be an emerging option for those who want to be part of the Pagan community, but who want to be a little more intellectual about their practices, and they really don’t care about the ‘woo’ anymore. Brendan Myers
‘Halal in the Family’ will expose a broad audience to some of the realities of being Muslim in America. By using satire, we will encourage people to reconsider their assumptions about Muslims, while providing a balm to those experiencing anti-Muslim bias. I also hope those Uncles and Aunties out there will crack a smile! Aasif Mandvi
The most effective adaptation of racism over time is the idea that racism is conscious bias held by mean people. Robin DiAngelo
I’m suspicious of any man or woman who approaches their own liberation with any kind of gender bias. Andrew Cohen
I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias. Tony Benn
There’s this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can’t be in pain or they can’t have rough lives or be deep or interesting. Rob Lowe
To make the argument that the media has a left- or right-wing, or a liberal or a conservative bias, is like asking if the problem with Al-Qaeda is do they use too much oil in their hummus. Al Franken
Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized. Benjamin Haydon
The FCC banned throttling for good reason, namely that Internet service providers should not bias their networks toward some applications or classes of applications. Biasing the network interferes with user choice, innovation, decisions of application makers, and the competitive marketplace. Marvin Ammori
And anytime a programmer makes a decision about how to deal with data, how to average it or clean it, you’re imparting more of your own bias on it. Hannah Fry
As people’s opportunities to succumb to confirmation bias increases online – only seeking out information that confirms their prejudices – ignorance, extremism and close-mindedness have continued to rise unabated. Maajid Nawaz
I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right. Henry Bessemer
When it comes to meritocracy and diversity, the symbolic is real. And that means that simple actions that reduce bias, such as blind resume or application screening, are a double win: they reduce implicit bias and they help communicate our commitment to meritocracy. Eric Ries
I’m not asking that people accept homosexuality. I’m not asking that they believe like I do that it’s inborn. I’m not asking that. All I’m saying is don’t let these children suffer without a family because of your bias. Rosie O’Donnell
When reviewing one’s portfolio, it is important to be aware of common mental mistakes that may lead to bad decisions. The most powerful is commitment bias, which, as manifested in investing, is the tendency to fall in love with one’s stocks. Whitney Tilson
Lots of stand-up showcases on TV are made by production companies that also represent acts as clients, so there tends to be a demonstrable bias towards a certain group of people. Stewart Lee
But in the right-wing media, they do have a right-wing bias. And they also have an agenda. So their agenda is: we’re an adjunct of the Republican Party, and we’re going push that agenda every day, and, as you say, brand these stories that help further the right-wing cause. Al Franken
When the culture of police departments is sometimes infused with bias or preconceived ideas against certain groups, there needs to be reform and retraining throughout. And unfortunately, we cannot rely on local departments to police themselves; we need intervention from the top. Al Sharpton
Have a bias toward action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away. Indira Gandhi
I think that business book reporting, it’s all Jim Collins, it’s the story of victory; it’s success bias over and over again. Ben Horowitz
Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminated against by the Obama administration on key delivery of services because of the bias and the bigotry of the administration? Newt Gingrich
There’s an unconscious bias in our society: girls are wonderful; boys are terrible. And to be a boy, or young man, growing up, having to listen to all this, it must be painful. Doris Lessing
I admit to a bias toward high culture. Sandra Tsing Loh
When a politician like Marco Rubio is willing to sacrifice his career defining immigration reform legislation solely to insure that gays and lesbians are denied equal protection under the law, we have to admit that we’re under attack. This is not pragmatic politics at work. These are the policies of bias, exclusion and unfairness. Harvey Fierstein
I don’t know of anybody’s political bias at CBS News. We try very hard to get any opinion that we have out of our stories, and most of our stories are balanced. Lesley Stahl
Default choices often remain unchanged for no reason other than being the default, either because of this lack of information or humans’ status quo bias. Marvin Ammori
Science is the search for truth, that is the effort to understand the world: it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation, but not the rejection of morality. Linus Pauling
If you’re a balanced cartoonist, you’re not a cartoonist. You definitely have to have a bias. Jeff MacNelly
When only one or two percent of filmmakers are female, you can’t help but have some kind of bias. Amber Heard
The tech industry has a strong bias towards technical solutions to social problems. Brianna Wu
Those of us in law enforcement must redouble our efforts to resist bias and prejudice. We must better understand the people we serve and protect – by trying to know, deep in our gut, what it feels like to be a law-abiding young black man walking on the street and encountering law enforcement. We must understand how that young man may see us. James Comey
We think that there really is racial bias in determining who people want to date. Sam Yagan
Fake news and rumors thrive online because few verify what’s real and always bias towards content that reinforces their own biases. Ryan Higa
The detention of Japanese Americans during World War II would qualify as an example of majoritarian tyranny and misuse of executive prerogative, driven by fear and racial bias. Michael Ignatieff
I arrived from Harvard, where I had studied philosophy and the history of ideas, with a bias toward literature and formal thought. Robert Darnton
We journalists are a bit like vultures, feasting on war, scandal and disaster. Turn on the news, and you see Syrian refugees, Volkswagen corruption, dysfunctional government. Yet that reflects a selection bias in how we report the news: We cover planes that crash, not planes that take off. Nicholas Kristof
We have a history of gender and racial bias on our court that continues to undermine the system. Excluding individuals based on race is antagonistic to the pursuit of justice. Anita Hill
For Mitt Romney, the complex question of anti-Mormon bias boils down to the practical matter of how he can make it go away. Facing a traditional American anti-Catholicism, John F. Kennedy gave a speech during the 1960 presidential campaign declaring his private religion irrelevant to his qualifications for public office. Noah Feldman
The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh. Jonathan Edwards
Like me, the great majority of Americans wish both to preserve the traditional definition of marriage and to oppose bias and intolerance directed towards gays and lesbians. Mitt Romney
A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weal test. Normals teach us rules; outliers teach us laws. For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias. Siddhartha Mukherjee
I think unconscious bias is one of the hardest things to get at. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
I like CrossFit. I agree with a lot of their coaching tips and the foundation of functional movements and hard work. They embody all that stuff. But I also think there’s a bit of a cult following within the CrossFit community, a bit of a fraternity, which obviously creates a bias and a little bit of a tunnel vision. Roman Reigns
To ask whether the mainstream media has a conservative or liberal bias is like asking whether al-Qaida uses too much oil in their hummus. It’s – I think they might use too much oil in their hummus – but it’s the wrong question. Al Franken
I’ve said many times how big a wrestling fan I am, but all my bias aside as her husband, I’m a huge Candice LeRae fan. I was a huge Candice LeRae fan before we started dating. I was a huge Candice LeRae fan before we got married. Johnny Gargano
Central authority is bad. The bias should be for freedom. And without a central authority, there are lots of little authorities, and we learn which ones to trust. John Stossel
We tend to accept information that confirms our prior beliefs and ignore or discredit information that does not. This confirmation bias settles over our eyes like distorting spectacles for everything we look at. Kyle Hill
I suspect unconscious bias has been far more of a factor for President Obama than overt racism and will also be a challenge for Hillary Rodham Clinton if she runs for president again. Nicholas Kristof
Media bias has been a favorite theme of the Right for decades, of course. Thomas Frank
If one seeks to analyze experiences and reactions to the first postwar years, I hope one may say without being accused of bias that it is easier for the victor than for the vanquished to advocate peace. Gustav Stresemann
Reality has a well-known liberal bias. Stephen Colbert
I think often there is great rivalry between neurosurgeons and cardiac surgeons. I think I maybe have a bit of bias with neurosurgeons’ opinion that nothing tops neurosurgery! But that makes for a quite interesting conflict between the two. James Nesbitt
Merely implying bias due to a judge’s ethnic heritage is wrong as a matter of principle and legally illegitimate. Ron DeSantis
My experiences with gender bias are probably the norm. What I found was that expectations of women were simply lower, and this resulted in being overlooked for certain opportunities. Heather Bresch
I got a real education at Fox from being around so many conservatives and you know, having my antenna attuned to bias, in either direction. Alisyn Camerota
Everybody is sitting around saying, ‘Well, jeez, we need somebody to solve this problem of bias.’ That somebody is us. We all have to try to figure out a better way to get along. Wilma Mankiller
Precisely because white denial has long trumped claims of racism, people of color tend to underreport their experiences with racial bias rather than exaggerate them. Tim Wise
People with disability have always been viewed as second-class citizens compared to non-disabled people. It’s just an unconscious bias that people have. Dylan Alcott
I don’t believe it’s humanly possible to be free of bias. Robin DiAngelo
Most Americans approach the problems of the Middle East with a pro-Israeli bias – and rightly so. George Ball
If you’re differently-abled, if you’re a person of color, if you express your identity in a way that’s different from the norm, for whatever reason, there’s an implicit bias where people, frankly, sometimes take you less seriously. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
In order to change the conversation about Muslims in American media, we need a diverse, unified movement of people who are willing to take a stand against anti-Muslim bias. Aasif Mandvi
Good managers have a bias for action. Tom Peters
There’s no bias when it comes to facts, and there’s no bias when it comes to decency. Jake Tapper
Martin Luther King Jr., recognized bias when he saw it, knew what he was talking about. Jack Schwartz
But there is something to the fact that we don’t see games on the West Coast, or we don’t see games on the East Coast, and stuff like that. It’s so unfair, because there is a bias that takes place. Marcus Allen
Stewardship of our air and water is a responsibility that should be free of the bias of politics. What’s more, environmental regulators should abide by the law. Luther Strange
I don’t know about liberal bias, but people of a liberal mentality are probably attracted in greater numbers to the arts than people of a conservative mentality. Sydney Pollack
I need to be very careful about going on certain networks that seem to have a bias. Rand Paul
There’s a socialist bias to the consensus of the literary world: a ’30s mentality that says factory workers are more worthy of our attention. Jay McInerney
I do find that the mainstream media oftentimes is what I would consider off base or has a bias. Dick Cheney
It’s human nature to make the complex manageable and determine things that fit your conclusions. That’s bias. Richard Burr
The power to arrest – to deprive a citizen of liberty – must be used fairly, responsibly, and without bias. Loretta Lynch
That is why I come forward tonight without any political label, without any bias, but just simply as an Englishman to say to you: a crime is being committed against civilization. John Amery
I think that survivorship bias, the survivorship bias is something I’m very acutely familiar with because of investing. Tim Ferriss
Racial bias does exist, and until we can all admit its existence and become introspective as to whether our own personal biases are impacting how we deal with others, there will be no change. Sunny Hostin
Optimism is normal, but some fortunate people are more optimistic than the rest of us. If you are genetically endowed with an optimistic bias, you hardly need to be told that you are a lucky person – you already feel fortunate. Daniel Kahneman
