outline the effects of an overly biased essay

The Effects of Bias Essay Example: “Twelve Angry Men”

Favor of one thing over another, usually in an unfair way is bias. Bias can be seen everywhere, from the books we read to everyday life like picking the neighborhood we want to live in. Sometimes bias isn’t shown intentionally, though. Bias normally affects people in a negative way by isolating minorities. Bias affects a person’s choices and behavior, leading to sometimes unforeseen outcomes in society. This bias is developed by how people are raised and their experiences in life.

How ‘Twelve Angry Men’ Depict It

In the book Twelve Angry Men, Juror 10 has a bias against the defendant. “These people are multiplying. That kid on trial, his type, they’re multiplying five times as fast as we are. That’s the statistic. Five times. And they are wild animals. They’re against us, they hate us, they want to destroy us (Rose, 65).” Even though the race of the defendant is never mentioned, it can be inferred. With that in mind, the reader can see that Juror 10 has a bias against the defendant.

This will make the trial of the boy unfair since the juror isn’t just judging the facts of the case. The bias that Juror 10 has probably didn’t form overnight. “Many biases are formed throughout life and held at the subconscious level, mainly through societal and parental conditioning (Agarwal, 1).” This supports the point that most biases aren’t formed overnight, that they instead take a long time. Juror 10’s bias was most likely formed by his experiences in life and the way his parents raised him. His bias led to a prolonged trial that almost wrongfully convicted an innocent man of murder.

Bias doesn’t necessarily have to be against a group of people. “This better be fast. I got tickets to a ballgame tonight. Yankees -- Cleveland (Rose, 9).” This, said by Juror 7, shows that he favors the ballgame over the trial. This leads him to not care what happens in the trial, even if someone gets wrongfully convicted, just because he wants to be at the ballgame. Juror 7 makes his bias very well known to the other jurors and the readers.

“We need to examine our biases and be mindful of our hidden prejudices and the way they manifest themselves in words and actions (Agarwal, 2).” Exhibited by the previous quote, people should be careful of the biases they make because it can harm others. This directly relates to what Juror 7 was doing in the trial. The reader could clearly see that he didn’t care what happened to the boy, whether the verdict was right or wrong; all he cared about was getting out of that jury room. “Listen, I'll tell you something. I'm a little sick of this whole thing already. We're getting nowhere fast.

Let's break it up and go home. I'm changing my vote to not guilty (Rose, 26).” Juror 7 changed his vote to not guilty, not based on the evidence of the case, but based on the fact that he wanted to go home.

The bias that people have isn’t always evident to them that they have it. For example, Juror 3 had bias in the trial, but he didn’t realize he had that bias until someone else pointed it out to him. “The phrase was ‘I’m gonna kill you.’ That’s what he said. To his own father. I don’t care what kind of man that was. It was his father. That goddamn rotten kid. I know him. What they’re like. What they do to you. How they kill you everyday. My god, don’t you see? How come I’m the only one who sees? Jeez, I can feel that knife goin’ in (Rose, 72).”

The past experiences that Juror 3 went through with his son help to shape the bias that he has. Juror 3 hasn’t had a great relationship with his son so this carries over into what he thinks of the boy on trial. Juror 3 blames his son for a lot of the problems that he has. Juror 3 thinks the boy on trial is just like his boy, a problem causer. “Implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious matter (Grinberg, 1).” As apparent from the previous quote, implicit bias is a bias that someone has, but doesn’t know they have. This is the type of bias that Juror 3 has because it affected everything he said and did in the jury room, but he was unaware until it was pointed out.

Bias affects everything a person does, from their choices to their behavior. This bias isn’t developed on its own or quickly, though. Bias is developed over a long time influenced by how someone was raised and their life experiences. Bias tends to be a negative thing because it generally involves excluding a minority. Even though some people are aware of their biases, others are not. These biases, whether realized or not, affect everything people do.

Works Cited

Agarwal, Pragya. “Unconscious Bias: How It Affects Us More than We Know.” Business - Forbes.com, 3 Dec. 2018.

Grinsberg, Emanuella. “4 Ways You Might Be Displaying Hidden Bias in Everyday Life.” CNN, 25 Nov. 2015.

Rose, Reginald. Twelve Angry Men. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2017.

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Chapter 6: Bias in Writing and Research

Reading and writing critically, style and tone of language.

Just as with any essay, the way you write and the tone that you use is very important to consider. If you are talking with a person who uses aggressive and inflammatory words, are you more or less likely to listen to the whole argument and ultimately be convinced? If someone is waving his hands and swearing or yelling, the gestures and raised voice may actually distract you from what is being said. Also, when people are extremely animated in their discussions, their audience may become defensive if they do not agree with the ideas presented. In such a case, the audience may then respond in the same way, and no one ends up really hearing other points of view and will definitely not be convinced.

In short, remember to choose your words carefully. While you will need to use assertive language to support your ideas, you need to choose objective words. How you make your argument more convincing is by: Using strong, peer-reviewed, and reliable evidence to back up your ideas; presenting and rebutting at least one opposing idea

Acknowledging Opposing Ideas and Limits to Your Argument

Because an argument implies differing points of view on the subject, you must be sure to acknowledge those opposing ideas. Avoiding ideas that conflict with your own gives the reader the impression that you may be uncertain, fearful, or unaware of opposing ideas. Thus, it is essential that you not only address counterarguments but also do so respectfully.

Try to address opposing arguments earlier rather than later in your essay. Rhetorically speaking, ordering your positive arguments last allows you to better address ideas that conflict with your own, so you can spend the rest of the essay countering those arguments. This way, you leave your reader thinking about your argument rather than someone else’s. You have the last word.

Acknowledging different points of view also fosters more credibility between you and the audience. They know from the outset that you are aware of opposing ideas and that you are not afraid to give them space.

It is also helpful to establish the limits of your argument and what you are trying to accomplish. In effect, you are conceding early on that your argument is not the ultimate authority on a given topic. Such humility can go a long way toward earning credibility and trust with an audience. Your readers will know from the beginning that you are a reasonable writer, and they will trust your argument as a result. For example, in the following concessionary statement, the writer advocates for stricter gun control laws, but admits it will not solve all of our problems with crime:

Although tougher gun control laws are a powerful first step in decreasing violence in our streets, such legislation alone cannot end these problems since guns are not the only problem we face.

Phrases of Concession are those such as:

granted that

Bias in Writing

Everyone has various biases on any number of topics. For example, you might have a bias toward wearing black instead of brightly coloured clothes, or wearing jeans rather than formal wear. You might have a bias toward working at night rather than in the morning, or working by deadlines rather than getting tasks done in advance. These examples identify minor biases, of course, but they still indicate preferences and opinions.

Bias and angles can easily appear even through the smallest words you choose to use in your writing. Choosing each word carefully is even more significant in a persuasive paper because, as already mentioned, you want your reader to view your presentation of ideas as logical and not just a tirade. Using objective and neutral language and evidence and acknowledging you have a possible bias will help you present a well-rounded and developed argument.

Handling bias in writing and in daily life can be a useful skill. It will allow you to articulate your own points of view while also defending yourself against unreasonable points of view. The ideal in persuasive writing is to let your reader know your bias, but do not let that bias blind you to the primary components of good argumentation: sound, thoughtful evidence and a respectful and reasonable address of opposing sides.

The strength of a personal bias is that it can motivate you to construct a strong argument. If you are invested in the topic, you are more likely to care about the piece of writing. Similarly, the more you care, the more time and effort you are apt to put forth and the better the final product will be.
The weakness of personal bias is that it can take over the essay—when, for example, you neglect opposing ideas, exaggerate your points, or repeatedly insert yourself ahead of the subject by using I too often. Being aware of all three of these pitfalls will help you avoid them.

Video source: https://youtu.be/ccK9TTA6xiw

Fact versus Opinion

Facts are statements that can be definitely proven using objective data. The statement that is a fact is absolutely valid. In other words, the statement can be pronounced as true or false. For example, 2 + 2 = 4. This expression identifies a true statement, or a fact, because it can be proved objectively .

Opinions are subjective and include personal views, or judgments. An opinion is what an individual believes about a particular subject. However, an opinion in argumentation must have legitimate backing; adequate evidence and credibility should support the opinion. Consider the credibility of expert opinions, as experts in a given field have the knowledge and credentials to make their opinion meaningful to a larger audience.

For example, you seek the opinion of your dentist when it comes to the health of your gums, and you seek the opinion of your mechanic when it comes to the maintenance of your car. Both have knowledge and credentials in those respective fields, which is why their opinions matter to you. But the authority of your dentist may be greatly diminished should he or she offer an opinion about your car, and vice versa.

In your writing, you want to strike a balance between credible facts and authoritative opinions. Relying on one or the other will likely lose more of your audience than it gains.

The Use of THE FIRST PERSON (“i”) in Writing

The use of I in writing is often a topic of debate, and the acceptance of its usage varies from instructor to instructor. It is difficult to predict the preferences for all your present and future instructors, but consider the effects it can potentially have on your writing.

Be mindful of the use of I in your writing because it can make your argument sound overly biased, for two primary reasons:

Excessive repetition of any word will eventually catch the reader’s attention—and usually not in a good way. The use of I is no different.

The insertion of I into a sentence alters not only the way a sentence might sound but also the composition of the sentence itself. I is often the subject of a sentence. If the subject of the essay is supposed to be, say, smoking, then by inserting yourself into the sentence, you are effectively displacing the subject of the essay into a secondary position. In the following example, the subject of the sentence is bolded and underlined:

Smoking is bad. vs. I think smoking is bad.

In the first sentence, the rightful subject, smoking , is in the subject position in the sentence. In the second sentence, the insertion of I and think replaces smoking as the subject, which draws attention to I and away from the topic that is supposed to be discussed. Remember to keep the message (the subject) and the messenger (the writer) separate.

You can use the following checklist for good arguments as you work on your persuasive essay:

Developing Sound Arguments

Does my essay contain the following elements?
An engaging introduction
A reasonable, specific thesis that is able to be supported by evidence
A varied range of evidence from credible sources
Respectful acknowledgment and explanation of opposing ideas
A style and tone of language that is appropriate for the subject and audience
Acknowledgment of the argument’s limits
A conclusion that will adequately summarize the essay and reinforce the thesis

Using Visual Elements to Strengthen Arguments

Adding visual elements to a persuasive argument can often strengthen its persuasive effect. However, remember you want to use them to make a bigger impact for your reader, so you need to make sure they are:

Relevant and essential. They should help your reader visualize your point.
Easy to follow. The reader should not have to work too hard to understand.
Appropriate to audience, tone, and purpose. Always keep the audience in mind.
Appropriately cited and referenced. If you borrow from a source, be sure to include proper citations.
NOT disrespectful. You want your writing to been seen as fair and non-biased.
NOT used too often. They will become more of a distraction than a focal point if they are used too often

There are two main types of visual elements: quantitative visuals and qualitative visuals.

Quantitative visuals present data graphically. They allow the audience to see statistics spatially. The purpose of using quantitative visuals is to make logical appeals to the audience. For example, sometimes it is easier to understand the disparity in certain statistics if it is displayed graphically. Bar graphs, pie charts, Venn diagrams, histograms, and line graphs are all ways of presenting quantitative data in spatial dimensions.
Qualitative visuals present images that appeal to the audience’s emotions. Photographs and pictorial images are examples of qualitative visuals. Such images often try to convey a story, and seeing an actual example can carry more power than hearing or reading about the example. For example, one image of a child suffering from malnutrition will likely have more of an emotional impact than pages dedicated to describing that same condition in writing.

Writing at Work

When making a business presentation, you typically have limited time to get your idea across. Providing visual elements for your audience can be an effective timesaving tool. Quantitative visuals in business presentations serve the same purpose as they do in persuasive writing. They should make logical appeals by showing numerical data in a spatial design. Quantitative visuals should be pictures that might appeal to your audience’s emotions. You will find that many of the rhetorical devices used in writing are the same ones used in the workplace.

Writing for Academic and Professional Contexts: An Introduction Copyright © 2023 by Sheridan College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Home — Essay Samples — Psychology — Bias — Understanding Cognitive Bias: Impact and Debiasing Strategies

Understanding Cognitive Bias: Impact and Debiasing Strategies

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Published: Sep 25, 2018

Words: 807 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

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Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Provides a foundational overview, outlining the historical context and introducing key information that will be further explored in the essay, setting the stage for the argument to follow.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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13.4: Bias in Writing

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Amber Kinonen, Jennifer McCann, Todd McCann, & Erica Mead
Bay College Library

Everyone has various biases on any number of topics. For example, you might have a bias toward wearing black instead of brightly colored clothes or wearing jeans rather than formal wear. You might have a bias toward working at night rather than in the morning, or working by deadlines rather than getting tasks done in advance. These examples identify minor biases, of course, but they still indicate preferences and opinions.

The weakness of bias is when the bias begins to take over the essay—when, for example, you neglect opposing ideas, exaggerate your points, or repeatedly insert yourself ahead of the subject by using and repeating personal pronouns such as “I” too often, such as stating. “I believe guns should be outlawed” or “I think smoking’s bad.” Excessive repetition of any word will eventually catch the reader’s attention—and usually not in a good way. The use of I is no different.

Being aware of all three of these pitfalls will help you avoid them.

Checklist: Developing Sound Arguments

Does my essay contain the following elements?

An engaging introduction
A reasonable, specific thesis that is able to be supported by evidence
A varied range of evidence from credible sources
Respectful acknowledgment and explanation of opposing ideas
A style and tone of language that is appropriate for the subject and audience
Acknowledgment of the argument’s limits
A conclusion that will adequately summarize the essay and reinforce the thesis

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

III. Rhetorical Situation

3.8 Bias in Writing

Kathryn Crowther; Lauren Curtright; Nancy Gilbert; Barbara Hall; Tracienne Ravita; and Kirk Swenson

Everyone has various biases on any number of topics. For example, you might have a bias toward listening to music radio stations rather than talk radio or news programs. You might have a bias toward working at night rather than in the morning, or working by deadlines rather than getting tasks done in advance. These examples identify minor biases, of course, but they still indicate preferences and opinions.

The strength of a personal bias is that it can motivate you to construct a strong argument. If you are invested in the topic, you are more likely to care about the piece of writing. Similarly, the more you care, the more time and effort you will put forth and the better the final product will be. The weakness of bias is when the bias begins to take over the essay—when, for example, you neglect opposing ideas, exaggerate your points, or repeatedly insert yourself ahead of the subject by using “I” too often. Being aware of all three of these pitfalls will help you avoid them.

This section contains material from:

Crowther, Kathryn, Lauren Curtright, Nancy Gilbert, Barbara Hall, Tracienne Ravita, and Kirk Swenson. Successful College Composition . 2nd edition. Book 8. Georgia: English Open Textbooks, 2016. http://oer.galileo.usg.edu/english-textbooks/8 . Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

To have a particular opinion or attitude about a subject that is based in feeling, inclination, or tendency rather than researched facts; preconceived notions.

Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research Copyright © 2022 by Kathryn Crowther; Lauren Curtright; Nancy Gilbert; Barbara Hall; Tracienne Ravita; and Kirk Swenson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Article Contents

Mediatization, effects of distorted news attention, about the authors.

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Do News Media Kill? How a Biased News Reality can Overshadow Real Societal Risks, The Case of Aviation and Road Traffic Accidents

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Toni G L A van der Meer, Anne C Kroon, Rens Vliegenthart, Do News Media Kill? How a Biased News Reality can Overshadow Real Societal Risks, The Case of Aviation and Road Traffic Accidents, Social Forces , Volume 101, Issue 1, September 2022, Pages 506–530, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab114

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Is irrational risk-avoiding behavior related to news media’s heightened attention for the negative and exceptional? Based on the theoretical approaches of mediatization and cultivation, it is hypothesized how news media can present an overly negative and biased reality that can have a severe impact on society. Focusing on the case of travel accidents, we argue that a disproportional increase in news attention for low-probability high-consequence aviation accidents can distort audiences’ risk perceptions such that driving is inaccurately perceived as a safer transportation alternative to flying, with potentially harmful consequences. This study accordingly documents results from time-series analyses (1996–2017) on US media attention for aviation and road accidents related to real-world data on travel behavior and fatal accidents. The over-time patterns expose how news media follow their own mediatized logic and reality: Negative incidents—i.e., both aviation and road accidents—become more prominent in the news over time, rather than accurately reflecting real-world trends. Next, since air travel is statistically the safest transportation mode, disproportionate attention for aviation accidents is argued to especially create a problematic distorted worldview among audiences. Accordingly, findings show how more media attention for aviation accidents is related to relatively more road traffic and more fatal road accidents in the subsequent months. We conclude that the media’s systematic overrepresentation of rare aviation accidents can overshadow the more substantial risk of (long-distance) driving. This paper illustrates how a distorted media reality can potentially result in severe consequences in light of audiences’ ill-informed fear perceptions and irrational risk-avoiding behavior.

This paper is concerned with people’s irrational fear perceptions in our contemporary world. Despite that objective long-term global trends on many facets show that we live in the safest period in human history, we simultaneously seem to live in an age driven by fear ( Rosling 2018 ). News media, as the main antecedent of our perceptions of what happens in the world, may play a central role in this discrepancy between how the world progresses and how people perceive it ( Romer, Jamieson, and Aday 2003 ; van der Meer et al. 2019 ). Since negativity and fear dominate most news reports, citizens might inaccurately perceive their lives as very dangerous ( Altheide 2003 ). Especially the high frequency with which mass media report on isolated, negative events might amplify audiences’ risk perceptions to irrational levels. Overemphasizing the rare and negative can potentially create a distorted media reality for audiences were real risks and problems are overshadowed.

To further zoom in on the consequences of biased risk perceptions as a result of news exposure, this study questions whether such risk perceptions can complicate people’s rational decision making. So far, previous studies lack in their examination of how media’s disproportional attention for rare, negative events can overshadow other, bigger risks. Empirical research has indeed suggested how biased media coverage relates to higher fear perceptions despite that real-world trends show that there is no need to feel at risk ( Romer, Jamieson, and Aday 2003 ; Li et al. 2015 ; van der Meer et al. 2019 ). Yet, we know little about whether such media-induced fear perceptions lead to irrational decisions with potentially harmful consequences. Therefore, this study is set out to explore if more media attention for incidents in one risk domain causes an increase in the number of fatalities in another risk domain due to irrational risk-avoiding behavior.

Inspired by the findings that the tragic events of 9/11 temporarily led to fewer passengers boarding planes and an increase in road traffic ( Gigerenzer 2006 ), people’s irrational risk-avoiding travel behavior is considered a suitable case to study the consequences of irrational fear perceptions. This particular case allows us to study whether exemplars news coverage of rare aviation accidents leads to irrational risk-avoiding behavior. As a result of disproportionate attention for exceptional, yet vivid, aviation accidents, audiences might choose (long-distance) driving as an alternative to flying. In doing so, individuals engage in more risk-taking behavior as the fatality risk associated with car travel is substantially higher than that of air travel ( Li et al. 2015 ). Therefore, this study asks whether increases in fatal road-traffic accidents can be related to news attention for aviation accidents.

Gigerenzer (2006) already documented that in the months after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, road travel and accidents increased. Here, news attention might have worked as a catalyst for a substantial decline in air travel in the wake of such a high-profile accident. As a key contribution, the current study connects key theories from the field of communication science and psychology (i.e., cultivation theory, mediatization, negativity and distortion bias, and risk assessment) to understand the role of news media in inducing such irrational risk-avoiding behavior. In addition, we rely on a longer time period to understand if this phenomenon, where real risks are overshadowed, is strictly related to extraordinary crisis times, like terrorist attacks, or whether it also occurs under normal circumstances where the news might actually play a substantial role. In other words, this study explores whether such irrational risk-avoiding behavior is simply associated with the occurrence of high-profile accidents or whether media’s disproportionate attention for accidents in general can bias audiences’ risk-related decisions. Accordingly, this study significantly adds to media-bias literature by offering robust evidence for the over-time distortion of media portrayals and its effects on actual behavior.

This paper is built up as follows. It is first argued how a biased reflection of reality, shown by the news media, can have severe cultivating consequences for public perception. Next, we propose that media’s attention for negative incidents—i.e., aviation and road accidents—grows over time as a result of mediatization processes caused by decreasing resources for media and increasing commercialization of journalistic processes. Based on US media coverage from 1996 to 2017 related to data on actual accidents ( N = 80,685), we aim to show how the number of articles per accident fluctuates over time and relates to the frequency of occurrence of actual crashes. Next, as air travel is the safest among all transportation modes, it is argued that disproportionate attention for aviation accidents is especially problematic. With the use of rigid time-series analyses, we test whether more media attention for such incidents can result in irrational risk-avoiding behavior—i.e., does more attention for aviation accidents result in more relative road traffic and more fatal road accidents in the subsequent months? In doing so, this paper contributes by providing insights into whether media systematically overrepresent low-frequency high-consequence incidents and if this can stimulate irrational and dangerous fear-avoiding behavior within society.

Cultivation theory ( Gerbner 1969 ), as a widely used theory in mass communication research, provides insights into how people’s social reality can be shaped by news exposure. Increased media consumption can cause audiences’ worldview to mirror patterns depicted in the media rather than what happens in the real world. In general, cultivation theory is concerned with the long-term effect of television viewing and the main proposition holds that more exposure to television (but also, for example, newspapers; Arendt 2010 ) increases the likelihood that people believe their social reality aligns with the reality portrayed on television. The theory has mainly been applied to understand how news cultivates audiences’ perception of reality in terms of crime and violence. A connection is posited between worries and fear about a world filled with violence and exposure to (local) television news on crime. Gerbner, as the founder of the cultivation theory, already showed how violence was portrayed more frequently in prime-time television compared with actual statistics on crime. This cultivation can cause audiences, especially “heavy viewers,” to judge their world to be more violent than it is in reality ( Romer, Jamieson, and Aday 2003 ).

Overall, based on cultivation literature, it can be argued that structures of the news cultivate unrealistic expectations and risk perceptions among the public that are in fact independent of what happens in the real world. Since news sources presume to give their audience factual stories, the heavy sensational coverage of different negative incidents ( Hamilton 2000 ) could well increase expectations that victimization of certain (uncommon) threats is likely.

Several scholars have, however, critiqued the claims related to cultivation theory and empirical studies found mixed results. Yet, and in line with the premise of cultivation theory, scholars overall agree that media act as a kind of filter that translates information from the world into news (Seguin 2016). Here, it is essential to note that the current study does not empirically test the central thesis of cultivation theory as we do not analyze audience data. Cultivation theory is rather consulted to provide a theoretical starting point for understanding how media reality can shape people’s social reality and therewith explain collective behavior change that can be considered irrational. Thus, against the backdrop of cultivation theory, we generally understand media’s role in society as including potential biases in news coverage that can distort people’s worldview. Since media have to make choices in their news selection, not everything that happens in the world at large can be covered and therefore certain more newsworthy events or incidents might get disproportional attention. Consequently, to get an understanding of how audience’s social world might become unnecessary filled with menace, it is important to understand such biases in the media’s news selection process.

To further understand how media have become interwoven with our daily lives, it is essential to consult literature on news selection and how such processes have changed over the years. The theory of mediatization provides a valuable starting point to understand how news media portray the world nowadays. Mediatization highlights a long-term process of societal change in which media have become more integrated into different levels of society ( Strömbäck 2008 ) and how media’s institutional characteristics have changed ( Strömbäck and Dimitrova 2011 ). It conceptualizes how, through dynamic over-time processes, media have become increasingly important and influential in today’s society.

Alongside the above developments, institutional characteristics of news media have changed, including standards of newsworthiness ( Strömbäck and Dimitrova 2011 ). Shaped by so-called media logic, commercial orientation, professionalization, and limited resources, news media predominantly select items that fit well into the patterns of news values ( Galtung and Ruge 1965 ). For example, events that are considered sensational or stories with particularly negative overtones (e.g., conflict, tragedy) get selected as news to gain the largest possible audience ( Harcup and O’neill 2001 ). The growing importance of such selection criteria in news coverage of current affairs has allegedly resulted in systematic biases in news coverage. Two specific news biases are of particular interest in the context of this study: negativity bias and distortion bias.

First, media’s tendency to overemphasize negative news has become more prominent over time ( Semetko and Schoenbach 2003 ; Farnsworth and Lichter 2006 ). This negativity bias underlines that negativity has become a defining characteristic of news, whereas good news is almost synonymous with the absence of news ( Soroka, Fournier, and Nir 2019 ). From a news values perspective, a negative tone in news reportage is an instrumental value for journalistic processes of deciding what news garners the highest ratings ( Galtung and Ruge 1965 ; Harcup and O’Neill 2001 ). Compared with positive information, negative news is more appealing to audiences as it is seen as unambiguous, consensual, unexpected, dramatic, sensational, entertaining, eye-catching, interesting, and short-dated ( Lengauer, Esser, and Berganza 2012 ). Accordingly, research in (social) psychology and neurology shows how audiences are drawn to negativity in information as an evolutionary mechanism to scan their environment for threats ( Baumeister et al. 2001 ; Rozin and Royzman 2001 ).

Second, since news is by definition about the extraordinary, media predominantly portray isolated events or incidents rather than mirror long-term socioeconomic trends. With this so-called distortion bias ( Entman 2007 ), media can turn rare incidents into the common world image ( Gilliam and Iyengar 2000 ). In that sense, news can partly be seen as paradoxical, the more commonly something happens in the world, the less likely it is that you read about it in the news, and vice versa, when something rarely happens it is considered highly newsworthy. Accordingly, in their focus on current affairs, media coverage is commonly found to be event driven and framed as episodic stories. In doing so, media tend to overshadow broader social and political contexts or trends needed for a complete understanding of complex societal topics.

In a mediatized environment, where news values and selection biases have become more prominent, discrepancies might arise between what happens in the world and how media portray it. As negativity and distortion biases have grown with time ( Farnsworth and Lichter 2006 ), media are likely to progressively overrepresent the frequency of negative and isolated events and create a biased reflection of reality. Thus, media, over time, might follow their own logic more instead of being guided by actual trends in the world ( van der Meer et al. 2019 ).

Extant research has observed such discrepancies between media attention and real-world developments. For example, research has shown how immigration news predominantly focuses on threats and negativity ( van Klingeren et al. 2015 ), whereas trends in immigration news seem largely unaffected by real-life trends in society ( Jacobs et al. 2018 ). Comparable findings can be found in research on crime news that has shown how news attention for crime has consistently increased and does not always reflect actual crime rates ( Paulsen 2003 ; Smolej and Kivivuori 2008 ). Also, the relative media attention for aviation accidents is found to rise rather than follow the downward trend of actual accidents ( van der Meer et al. 2019 ). As the current study is interested in the role news media play in the construction of risk perceptions regarding aviation and road accidents, we expect to observe similar patterns in news attention for these incidents. In other words, it is expected that over time news media pay more attention to these negative events—i.e., aviation and road accidents—rather than follow trends in real-life data on the frequency of occurrence of these incidents:

H1: The frequency with which news media report on negative incidents—i.e., aviation and road accidents—increases over the years.

H2: There is a discrepancy between the frequency of occurrence of negative incidents—i.e., aviation and road accidents—and news media’s attention for these events.

Next, when comparing aviation and road accidents, it can be expected that in mediatized news systems, aviation accidents gain relatively more attention. Aviation accidents, compared with road traffic accidents, are more exceptional incidents and therewith more likely to make it into the news following the distortion bias. In addition, these incidents can be considered more newsworthy since they check more boxes regarding news values such as dramatization and sensationalism ( Harcup and O’Neill 2001 ). Against the backdrop of processes of mediatization, we, therefore, hypothesize that the relative attention for aviation accidents, compared with road accidents, goes up over time:

H3: News attention for aviation accidents, relative to road accidents, rises over the years.

In addition to explaining variation in media coverage of aviation and road accidents over time, our research is primarily designed to determine whether biased news attention for rare incidents can actually distort audiences’ behavioral responses. Cultivation theory distinguishes two levels of outcomes ( Shrum 2004 ): First-order outcomes refer to when news exposure affects audiences’ memory-based judgments (e.g., the frequency of occurrence of negative incidents) and the second-order outcomes occur when meaning is extrapolated from news coverage to the extent that it shapes subjective attitudes (e.g., fear of becoming a victim of negative incidents). Such outcomes suggest that (disproportional) news attention for negative events can potentially have a large impact on society, where the inaccurate media reality constructed via the news becomes adopted as audiences’ social reality. Especially because media have become more institutionalized within society, due to processes of mediatization, audiences’ reality might increasingly mirror what the media portray.

A problematic distorted worldview among audiences might especially be created when media overrepresent aviation accidents. The occurrence of such commercial airplane crashes is extremely rare, especially when compared with the risk associated with other modes of transportation. Therefore, continuous coverage of such exceptional events, just because they are newsworthy and sensational, can distort audiences’ estimation of the frequency of occurrence of these incidents. When so-called low-probability high-consequence accidents become more available in the minds of the audiences, this might complicate their rational decision making and risk assessment. If it comes to such incidents, (lay) audiences’ risk evaluation and risk-avoiding behavior often appear as irrational or biased ( Pidgeon, Kasperson, and Slovic 2003 ).

Extant research has pointed to discrepancies between public responses and the risk judgments of experts. Incidents, assessed as minor risk events by (technical) experts, can produce a massive societal response. In contrast to the “objective” risk level, people’s perceived risk is inherently a social construct ( Beck 1992 ). People rather use social and psychological dimensions in their risk judgments, like its catastrophic potential of the risk or observable character ( Slovic, Fischoff, and Lichtenstein 2005 ). The same goes for aviation accidents. Based on rational risk calculations as a function of the probability of occurrence assessment, indicators have shown a continuous improvement of aviation safety over the last decades, making air travel the safest transportation mode ( Li et al. 2015 ). Hence, the biased or ill-informed decision to refrain from commercial air travel—for example, in the wake of a fatal plane crash—is shaped by something else than statistical changes and real risk levels.

Within the field of risk research, scholars have considered news media as key actors in the social construction and definition of what acceptable levels of risk are ( Beck 1992 ). In Beck’s view, many of modern society’s risks are open to social definition and construction. Here, mass media play an important role, both in the construction itself, as well as in criticizing and challenging institutional responses to those risks. In light of the news biases addressed in this paper, news value-driven media coverage on isolated and catastrophic accidents might cause disproportional amplification of or attentiveness to risks, creating irrationally high levels of fear ( Berger 2001 ). Several related theoretical perspectives are useful in understanding how news content may contribute to a distorted worldview among audience members, shaping not only what we think about but also how we decide to act. First, scholars who draw most directly on theories of communication science have provided a long history of how media content, especially negative news ( Soroka, Fournier, and Nir 2019 ), affects what people think about, what is readily accessible in our minds (i.e., agenda-setting theory) ( McCombs and Shaw 1972 ), and how we interpret certain issues (i.e., framing theory) ( Entman 1993 ). Hence, audiences might learn about the frequency of occurrence of certain events based on what is presented on the news and consider that these numbers are applicable to the real world. Second, psychological research highlights that individuals rely on available instances in their memory to make judgments—i.e., availability heuristic ( Tversky and Kahneman 1973 ). The repeated coverage of negative incidents can increase their availability in audiences’ memory, independently of actual trends ( Romer, Jamieson, and Aday 2003 ). Accordingly, news about negative events like aviation accidents can increase perceived vulnerability to the degree that such stories are covered frequently.

Previous research has indeed documented how disproportional media coverage relates to distortions in audiences’ perceptions and risk assessments. For example, it is observed how news exposure biases perceived risk of terrorism to self and others ( Nellis and Savage 2012 ), how negative coverage can create overly negative perceptions of minorities ( Gilliam and Iyengar 2000 ), how news exposure explains salience of and fear for violent crimes rather than real crime rates ( Gross and Aday 2003 ), and how media attention for aviation accidents can cause worries about airline safety ( Li et al. 2015 ).

Next, media-induced fear perceptions can also have behavioral effects. Exposure to crime news is, for example, found to be associated with avoidance behavior where people avoid certain areas because they overemphasize the possibility to become victimized there ( Smolej and Kivivuori 2008 ). In the context of our study, it is expected that when media disproportionally cover aviation incidents, audiences might engage in irrational avoidance behavior as they misperceive travel-related risk levels. As plane crashes are vivid media exemplars, they might become more available in the minds of the audiences and therewith overshadow real risks like road traffic accidents. In other words, a biased media reality might be adopted as people’s social reality and, in turn, result in audiences’ misinformed risk judgment where road travel is incorrectly considered a safer alternative. Whether the population irrationally switches their transportation choices from air travel to road travel, in light of media coverage on aviation accident, can become evident when such media coverage relates to increased road traffic relative to air traffic (indicating that road travel is chosen as an alternative). Such media-inspired avoidance behavior can be consequential ( Skogan 1986 ; Smolej and Kivivuori 2008 ). If people (in large numbers) decide to choose (long-distance) driving to refrain from commercial air travel, this likely increases the number of fatal road accidents as driving is statistically less safe than flying. Therefore, this study explores if media attention to aviation accidents is related to an increase in fatal road accidents:

H4: The level of news attention for aviation accidents is significantly and positively related to road traffic relative to air traffic.

H5: The level of news attention for aviation accidents is significantly and positively related to the number of fatal road accidents.

This study relies on a longitudinal design to compare US news attention with real-world statistics. A computer-assisted content analysis was applied to retrieve the articles that covered aviation accidents ( N = 24,954) and road accidents ( N = 55,731) in five quality and popular newspapers. The time period of 1996–2017 was selected as by this time commercial air travel has certainly become the safest transportation option and can be seen as an (affordable) alternative transportation mode to long-distance driving in the United States. Real-world data were collected for the number of fatal road accidents and total road traffic as the main outcome variables for testing the impact of potentially biased coverage. Fatal aviation accidents and total air traffic statistics are also collected as control variables in the analyses.

All data were collected for the time period of January 1996 till December 2017 and are measured on a monthly aggregated level.

Media coverage

The database of LexisNexis was consulted to obtain the number of news articles that cover transportation accidents in the period from 1996 until 2017. We relied on a combination of quality newspapers—i.e., The New York Times and Washington Post—and popular newspapers—i.e., Daily News, The New York Post, and USA Today—with the highest newspaper circulation from the United States to obtain a broad sense of the level of attention for such negative incidents. A census of all news articles about road traffic accident and accidents of commercial carriers was retrieved using a computer-assisted content analysis. In a first step, search terms were developed to retrieve relevant articles from the LexisNexis archive. For aviation accidents, the following search string was applied: “(plane OR airplane OR airline OR aircraft) AND (crash OR accident OR death) AND NOT military AND NOT striker jet AND NOT bomber” and for road accidents: “(car OR motor vehicle OR traffic) AND (crash OR accident OR death).” Numerous search strings were tested with analogies for the words in the search string; in the end, we observed that a less elaborate search string managed to best capture relevant articles. In a next step, we relied on an iterative process to improve the recall and precision of articles that actually contained references to accidents of motor vehicles or commercial carriers. We examined if the exclusion and exhaustion to ascertain the articles’ topic would improve when the words in the search string appear closer to each other in a news article. A comparison was made between the word range of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 words. So, for retrieving articles about aviation accidents, it was explored what range between the words (“plane” or “airplane” or “airline” or “aircraft”) and (“crash” or “accident” or “death”) would retrieve relevant articles most accurately. We did the same for road accidents with the words (“car” or “motor vehicle” or “traffic”) and (“crash” or “accident” or “death”). In the end, by systematically scanning the texts and the topics of the articles, we concluded that the range of ten words was the best approach to retrieving articles about motor vehicle traffic accidents and accidents of commercial carriers. Table 1 presents an overview of number of articles about each type of accidents per newspaper.

Total News Coverage on Aviation and Road Accidents

A monthly level measure of media attention was constructed by aggregating all the articles per month. For the analysis, this study relies both on the absolute and relative media attention for both types of incidents. The absolute measure reflects the total number of articles in the selected newspapers that discuss aviation or road accident. In addition, a relative measure was constructed where the number of news articles about these accidents was divided by the total news circulation of newspapers in the United States. This measure allows for controlling whether over-time trends in news attention are not caused by fluctuations in newspaper circulation but rather show changes in relative attention.

Total road traffic

To obtain an indication of road traffic in the United States, we rely on traffic volume trends, measured in Millions of Miles, documented by the Federal Highway Administration. These monthly statistics are based on hourly traffic count data reported by all US States. Data are collected at ~5,000 continuous traffic counting locations and re-adjusted to match vehicle miles of travel from the Highway Performance Monitoring System.

Fatal road accidents

The monthly measure of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes was the sum of fatal accidents that occurred in a given month and were reported by National Center for Statistics and Analysis. This measure is a census of fatal motor-vehicle traffic crashes in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To be included, an accident must involve a motor vehicle traveling on a roadway and result in the death of at least one person (a vehicle occupant, driver, passenger, or a nonoccupant). In addition, the total number of fatalities per fatal road accidents for each month is retrieved from United States Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Total air traffic

To measure US air travel, number of monthly revenue passengers enplaned is obtained from database of Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (see data base T1: US Air Carrier Traffic and Capacity Summary by Service Class). These statistics included number of passengers on domestic and international flights of major carriers, national carriers, large and medium regional carriers. Together, these carriers account for most US commercial air traffic and can therefore be seen as a system-wide measure of commercial air traffic.

Fatal aviation accidents

The monthly statistics regarding aviation accidents were obtained from National Transportation Safety Board’s database. This database provides an overview of the number of accidents and of commercial carriers and related number of fatalities both worldwide and in the United States.

To test the first and third hypotheses, we rely on ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. H2, focusing on the autoregressive (AR) features of media attention for aviation accidents and how it is associated with real-world data, can be tested through estimation of partial adjustment (Koyck) autoregressive distributed lag (ADL) models. These regression models take the lag values of both dependent variable and independent variables into account to explain variation in media attention on a monthly level.

To explore the over-time effect of media attention for aviation accidents (H4 and H5), we draw on monthly level Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) time-series techniques ( Vliegenthart 2014 ). ARIMA modeling enables us to identify the size and delay of the effect of media coverage. In addition, these models take the series own past into account as it is assumed that the current values of time series—i.e., relative road travel and fatal road accidents—are strongly predicted by past values or seasonality in the series. Several steps are taken to ensure that the models accurately considered the autocorrelation of the series.

Before adding explanatory variables to the ARIMA models, the series need to be tested for stationarity, AR and moving average (MA) terms need to be determined, and the absence of autocorrelation of residuals need to be assessed ( Vliegenthart 2014 ). First, the Dickey–Fuller test was applied to test the assumptions regarding mean stationarity. Second, the next step is to define the AR and MA terms of the ARIMA model. The terms help to build a model that reflects the past of the series and that includes all the previous information of the series over-time variance in the model. AR orders refer to the influence of pervious values and MAs are about the influence of residuals from previous values. Finally, the Portmanteau (Q) test for white noise indicates whether the residuals and the squared residuals are autocorrelated or not.

Media Distortion Hypotheses

We start with testing whether the actual occurrence of both aviation and road accidents show a different over-time trend as compared with news coverage of both accidents. First, we test the effect of a linear monthly trend variable on the real-world statistics on number of aviation and road accidents. OLS regressions show how this monthly trend variable has a negative effect on total number of fatal road accidents ( b = −0.31, SE = 0.03, p < .001) and fatalities due to road accidents ( b = −0.40, SE = 0.04, p < .001). The same pattern is observed for fatal aviation accidents: worldwide ( b = −0.01, SE = 0.01, p < .001), in the United States ( b = −0.01, SE = 0.01, p < .001), and number of US fatalities as a result of aviation crashes ( b = −0.02, SE = 0.01, p < .001). These statistics suggest that the number of fatal aviation and road accidents decreases over the years. Important to note is that the monthly US fatalities as a result of road accidents ( M = 3,237.14, SD = 463.55) is substantially higher than fatalities related to aviation accidents ( M = 34.43, SD = 34.40). The figures in Supplementary Appendix visualize the over-time changes in total number of fatal road accidents ( Supplementary Figure A1 ) and aviation accidents ( Supplementary Figure A2 ).

Second, hypothesis 1 predicted that news attention for negative incidents—i.e., aviation and road accidents—increases over the years. We test whether, despite the decreasing number of road and aviation accidents, the monthly number of articles about such accidents goes up over the years. The number of articles per accidents is calculated by dividing the monthly articles (relative to total news circulation) about accidents by the total number of accidents that occurred in that given month. The same monthly trend variable is applied to predict news attention per road accident/fatality and aviation accident/fatality. The monthly trend variable shows a significant positive effect on number of articles per fatal road accident ( b = 5.53e-14, SE = 4.08e-15, p < .001), number of articles per fatality due to road accidents ( b = 5.27e-14, SE = 3.71e-15, p < .001), number of articles per fatal aviation accident ( b = 3.41e-12, SE = 8.19e-13, p < .001), and number of articles per fatality due to aviation accidents ( b = 2.80e-12, SE = 4.18e-13, p < .001). Figure 1 visualizes how the relative number of articles per aviation and road accident goes up over the years. In the Supplementary Appendix, Supplementary Figure A3 shows the over-time relative media attention for road and aviation accident and Supplementary Figure A4 shows the number of articles per accident. In support of hypothesis 1, these findings indicate that over-time news attention per fatal road and aviation accident increases, whereas the frequency with which these accidents occur decrease over time.

Relative number of news articles per road and aviation accidents over time.

To test if news media follow their own logic when reporting on negative accidents, we compare media attention for aviation and road accidents with data on the actual occurrence of these accidents. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that there would be a discrepancy between the frequency of occurrence of negative incidents—i.e., aviation and road accidents—and news media’s attention for these events (H2).

Aviation accidents

In these analyses we ask whether media coverage of aviation accidents is explained by actual statistics on fatal aviation accidents. In table 2 , two ADL models are shown, predicting the (i) absolute attention for aviation accidents and (ii) relative attention for aviation accidents. The statistically significant effects that can be observed for the AR terms of media attention indicates that attention for aviation accidents in the previous months explains attention in the next month. In support of H2, table 2 shows the absence of an effect of the number of actual fatal aviation accidents, for any lags, on media attention, indicating that the occurrence of such accidents, in the same or previous months, is not leading for newspaper coverage on these accidents.

Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model Predicting Relative and Absolute News Attention for Aviation Accidents

Note: Cells contain unstandardized regression coefficients with standard errors.

* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.

Road accidents

The same AR tests were run for media coverage of road accidents. The ADL models aim to predict relative and absolute news attention for road accidents based on AR terms and actual statistics on fatal road accidents in the United States. A comparable pattern is observed as was found for aviation accidents. Clear AR effects can be observed if we look at table 3 , whereas no effects of the actual number of fatal US road accidents on coverage is present. These findings together support H2 and suggest that news media follow their own mediatized logic and reality, rather than accurately representing what happens in the world.

Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model Predicting Relative and Absolute News Attention for Road Accidents

Hypothesis 3 assumed that news attention for aviation accidents, relative to road accidents, rises over the years. Accordingly, the next regression analysis presents how the number of articles per aviation accident fatalities, relative to articles per fatal road accidents, varies over the years. The total number of articles per fatal road accidents was subtracted from the total number of articles per fatalities due to aviation accidents. A positive effect of the monthly trend variable was found on this indicator of news attention for aviation accidents relative to road accidents ( b = 2.75e-12, SE = 4.18e-13, p < .001). The over-time changes are graphed in the Supplementary Appendix, Supplementary Figure A5 . So, despite higher absolute media attention for road accidents, the relative attention for rare aviation accidents goes up over time, therewith H3 is confirmed.

The over-time Effects of Media Attention

To determine the effects of media coverage of aviation accidents, we, in a first step, assess its effect on travel behavior (H4). By relying on monthly aggregated ARIMA modeling, we aim to see if road traffic, relative to air traffic, increases as a consequence of more news coverage on aviation accidents in previous months. A new variable was constructed to measure relative travel behavior by dividing total US road traffic with US aviation traffic and multiplying it by 10,000. This relative measure is used as it best reflects whether road traffic is chosen as an alternative for air travel since an increase in this measure indicates that the US population on average more often decided to travel by car rather than by commercial airlines. The Dickey–Fuller tested indicated that the dependent times series—relative road travel—are stationary. To remove autocorrelation from the residuals, AR terms at lag 1, 3, 4, 6, 12, and MA terms at lag 1, 7, 12 were added. Table 4 presents three ARIMA models for the effect of absolute news attention. Supplementary Table A1 , in the Supplementary Appendix, presents the same three models but with the effect of relative news attention. The first model is the model with only the AR and MA terms and the year and month as control variables. The second model also includes the following control variables: news attention for road accidents on T-1 and T-2, number of fatal road accidents on T0 and T-1, and a dummy variable controlling for the occurrence of 9/11. This 9/11 dichotomous variable was constructed as temporary dummy three months after the tragic event. The final model also includes news attention for aviation accidents at T-1 and T-2 to test whether attention for aviation accidents in the previous two months results in less road traffic. The models show positive effects of media attention for T-1 on traffic behavior. For the purpose of face validity of this empirical relationship, we look at a few instances of how increase in media coverage relates to declines in air travel. First, the time-series model showed an effect of the 9/11 variable on travel behavior. The data showed that the 9/11 incident came with a 156% increase in media coverage about aviation accidents and a drop of 20.9% in relative air travel in the subsequent two months. Next, a drop in air travel after increased media attention can also be observed beyond the occurrence of such high-profile accidents, hinting at a biased response among audience members following disproportionate media attention. For example, in July 2013, media coverage on plane crashes increased with 187.5%, a drop in air travel of 15.8% was observed in the subsequent two months, whereas number of fatalities due to aviation accidents was relatively low (i.e., 52.19 SDs below the mean). Another example is September 1998, where an increase in media coverage of 137.3% was followed by a decrease of 7.9% in relative air travel.

ARIMA Estimation of the Effect of Absolute Media Attention on Road Traffic Relative to Aviation Traffic, 1996–2017

Note: Cells contain unstandardized regression coefficients, standard errors in parentheses.

† p < 0.10; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.

Additional analyses were run to determine if accidents with high numbers of fatalities prompted greater road traffic. Since particularly deadly events might be covered at even higher rates, accidents with high number of fatalities might explain the relation between media attention and travel behavior. In the Supplementary Appendix, Supplementary Table A2 , model 1 depicts the same ARIMA model run with individual dummy variables for the deadliest incidents—i.e., all airliner accidents in the United States that have resulted in at least eighty fatalities ( N = 6). Moreover, in the Supplementary Appendix, Supplementary Table A2 , model 2 includes the ARIMA model with a dummy variable for the months with more than fifty US fatalities due to aviation accidents ( N = 49). The results of both models show how some of the deadliest incidents and months with high number of fatalities affect relative travel behavior, whereas the effect of media coverage of aviation accidents still holds. In sum, as predicted by H4, these results indicate that an increase in media attention for aviation accidents results in more relative road traffic in the next month.

To test H5, it needed to be assessed whether more media coverage of aviation accidents actually results in an increase in fatal road accidents. The Dickey–Fuller test indicated that the dependent times series—total US fatal road accidents—is stationary. AR terms al lag 1, 2, 11, 12, 24, 36, and MA terms at lag 1, 7 were added; however, no white noise could be obtained in the residuals. Despite the series behave with clear patterns and in a seasonal matter, adding (seasonal) AR and MA terms did not result in the complete absence of autocorrelation in the residuals. Therefore, next to adding the most important AR and MA terms, multiple control variables as exogenous variables were included in the ARIMA model, among the year and month, to control for as many confounding factors as possible.

Table 5 and Supplementary Table A3 , in the Supplementary Appendix, present the ARIMA models for both the effect of the absolute and relative news attention for aviation accidents. The first model is again the basic model including just the AR and MA terms and the year and month as control variables. The second model also controls for news attention for road accidents on T-1 and T-2, number of fatal US aviation accidents at T-0 and T-1, total road traffic in the same and previous month, total number of enplaned passengers at the same and previous month, and the dummy variable controlling for the occurrence of 9/11. The final model also includes news attention for aviation accident on T-1 and T-2. The ARIMA models show that the attention for aviation accidents has an increasing effect on the number of fatal road accidents both in the next month as well as in the month after. A single additional news article in one of the newspapers about an aviation accident in a given month yields an increase of 1.30 road accidents in the next month and another 1.14 in the month after ( table 5 ). Since the effect of media attention for aviation accidents still holds while the analyses control for actual road traffic and the autoregression of fatal road accidents, it can be argued that this media effect is not just an epiphenomenon of increase in road traffic. Since the previous analyses showed how attention for aviation accidents can be disproportionate, the observed media effect here seems to go beyond a proportional relationship between road traffic and fatalities in road traffic. This effect seems to mainly reflect irrational decisions based on news coverage of sensational and rare aviation accidents since no (negative) association between media attention for road accidents and the occurrence of actual fatal road accidents is found.

ARIMA Estimation of the Effect of Absolute Media Attention on Fatal Road Accidents, 1996–2017

Additional ARIMA models were run with total death toll from road traffic accidents, also relative to air traffic fatalities. Supplementary Table A4 in the Supplementary Appendix shows how media attention for aviation accidents increases total fatalities due to car crashes (model 1, Supplementary Table A4 ) and total fatalities due to car crashes relative to fatalities due to plane crashes (model 2, Supplementary Table A4 ) in the subsequent month. Moreover, the same controlling analyses as for testing H4 were performed. The ARIMA model in Supplementary Table A5 includes the deadliest aviation incidents and months with high number of fatalities due to aviation incidents. With the addition of these control variables, the effect of media attention for aviation accidents on fatal road accidents still holds.

Finally, since the data suggest that the absolute numbers of both types of accidents are decreasing over time, whereas the total number of trips are increasing, an additional model is run where the outcome variable, number of fatal road accidents, is normalized. Although the other models control for total road traffic, Supplementary Table A6 shows the same analyses but with the relative score of the dependent variable, where absolute number of road accidents is divided by total road traffic and multiplied by 100,000. The findings regarding the effect of media coverage are comparable with the other models.

In conclusion, in line with H5, the results presented above indicate that the level of news attention for aviation accidents is significantly and positively related to the number of fatal road accidents and number of fatalities due to road accidents in the subsequent months.

Since risk and fear dominate most headlines, this study aimed to clarify people’s irrational fear perceptions as a result of overly negative news. To do so, we rely on the case of travel accidents. The purpose was to explore if news media disproportionally portray such negative incidents and if news attention for rare and vivid aviation accidents can overshadow real-world risks. Audiences might choose (long-distance) driving over flying in the wake of a biased media reality that portrays aviation accidents as a common threat, despite that flying is statistically the safest alternative.

This paper, first of all, concludes that news media, in their coverage of aviation and road accidents, create and follow their own logic and are increasingly driven by a biased focus on the negative rather than accuracy. Our findings show that (i) despite the decreasing number of actual road and aviation accidents, the monthly number of news articles about such accidents goes up over the years and (ii) real-world frequency of occurrence of such accidents is not leading for news attention on these accidents. Thus, the current study finds robust support for what previous research has argued: News media’s interest in the negative has grown over time, such that media coverage has become increasingly detached from real-world trends ( Jacobs et al. 2018 ; van der Meer et al. 2019 ). Hence, the findings expose distortions, in terms of a negativity bias and selection bias ( Entman 2007 ), in the context of news attention for traffic accidents.

The observed over-time patterns align with the theorization regarding the long-term processes of mediatization. Media logic and the growing importance of news values institutionalized in news selection processes can potentially explain the growing interest in negative and rare incidents ( Strömbäck and Dimitrova 2011 ). Moreover, the institutionalization of media in society might explain the documented absence of a relationship between what happens in the world and news attention, media rather construct their own reality based on what news events gain the largest audience. In turn, this media reality, rather than what actually happens in the world, likely shapes audiences’ social reality and therewith complicates their rational decision making.

Second, as air travel is statistically the safest transportation mode, it is argued that disproportionate attention for aviation accidents would particularly be alarming. More media attention for such accidents can induce ill-informed fear for flying and result in irrational risk-avoiding behavior. This type of behavior is exactly what we observed. As the main contribution, this study shows, based on time-series analyses that control for important confounding variables, how more media attention for aviation accidents results in more relative road traffic and more fatal road accidents and fatalities due to road accidents in the subsequent months. In line with empirical survey research that showed how exposure to crime news can relate to risk-avoiding behavior ( Smolej and Kivivuori 2008 ), our aggregated findings indicate that audiences engage in irrational risk-avoiding behavior with potentially fatal consequences. We conclude that media’s systematic overrepresentation of low-frequency high-consequence accidents can have far-reaching consequences and stimulate irrational and dangerous fear-avoiding behavior where driving is inaccurately considered a safer transportation alternative to flying. Gigerenzer (2006) showed comparable risk-avoiding behavior in the context of a period of fear for terrorism: The tragic terrorist attacks of 9/11 temporarily resulted in an increase in road travel and accidents increased. Seemingly, these effects go beyond irrational fear for terrorism as the patterns we found are not limited to the context of 9/11, and news media seem to play an important role in audiences’ irrational risk-avoiding behavior under normal circumstances.

We interpret the observed relation between news attention and irrational risk-avoiding behavior as being in line with the central notion of cultivation theory ( Gerbner 1969 ), in terms of how media can shape social reality in ways that deviate from what actually happens in the world. The strong focus of news media on vivid, but exceptional aviation accidents may cultivate audiences to focus on the risk of flying and ignore other threats or problems, like road-traffic accidents, that happen more common but there with less likely to end up on the front pages ( Romer, Jamieson, and Aday 2003 ). Traditional cultivation theory mainly studies these relationships by surveying audiences and testing whether heavy (local) news viewers are more likely to report fear of victimization of crime. With its over-time focus, the current study is unable to look at such individual level fear perceptions and news consumption patterns since such data are unavailable for a longer period. Yet, the study does expose aggregated level patterns that hint toward media’s cultivating impact on society where the relation between news attention and (irrational) travel behavior serves as a case in point for how audiences’ exposure to certain news content relates to their fear perceptions.

Despite the study’s focus on one type of topic within one national context, the findings can inspire future studies. In terms of broader implications, further work can build off of these results in exploring how news media can induce irrational behavior. Extant empirical studies have documented how overly negative media coverage can significantly alter audiences’ perceptions, irrespective of actual statistics. A next step would be assessing whether media biases can be associated with (proxies of) irrational behavioral reactions. For example, in the context of news on immigration, research has shown that this coverage is overly negative and disproportionally related to issues of crime and terrorism ( Jacobs et al. 2018 ). Such biased and negative coverage on immigration is observed to have an effect on the attitudinal level ( van Klingeren et al. 2015 ). Subsequentially, researchers can think about behavioral-level effects of media biases. One could imagine how negative stories of immigrants not only spurs the growth of anti-immigration sentiment in the United States (and beyond), but also in part fuels assaults on democracy—e.g., in terms of violent protests or (online) assaults of outgroup members. Accordingly, we often read in the news about cases of irrational collective behavior that might be inspired by media coverage. As an illustration, in 2017, 1,500 people were injured in a stampede after mistaking firecrackers for a terrorist attack when Juventus fans watched the Champions League final in a Turin square ( Jones 2017 ). Such partly irrational fear perceptions and potentially dangerous behavioral responses might well be partly related to how media, in this case, cover terrorism (since news exposure is related to irrational fear of becoming a victim of terrorism) ( Nellis and Savage 2012 ).

The observed relation between media attention for aviation accidents and fatal road accidents might not only be explained as a result of media bias, especially since the absolute number of articles about road accidents is generally higher than the coverage of aviation accidents. Arguably, the effect of media attention for aviation accidents is partly explained by a negativity bias in the information processing of audiences. Individuals generally react stronger to more negative information ( Soroka, Fournier, and Nir 2019 ). Both road and aviation accidents are negative events, yet, as aviation accidents are more exceptional, vivid, and, in a way, sensational, especially the coverage of these accidents might exaggerate the salience and availability of risk for flying in the minds of the audience. In addition, not only a negativity bias in audiences’ news processing but also in their news selection might exacerbate such trends. In a high-choice media environment, people can select all types of news they are personally interested in and opt out of news assessed as uninteresting. Here, individuals are also found to be drawn to negative stories in their news selection ( Knobloch-Westerwick, Mothes, and Polavin 2020 ). Such selection biases might further increase audiences’ disproportionate exposure to negative news on isolated incidents. In addition, when people are already worried about airline travel, they may be drawn to articles that further stoke this fear. Such news patterns relate to another selection bias, known as the confirmation bias, where audiences tend to select news that is in line with their prior beliefs and understanding of the world ( Knobloch-Westerwick, Mothes, and Polavin 2020 ). These desires for certain news can outweigh the need for correctness or a complete understanding and therewith people can create their own biased news environment.

With the observed increase in coverage on negativity, media are often blamed for having a blind spot for progression. Rather than presenting structural base-rate information, uncommon incidents are overreported, which potentially creates a distortion in audiences’ estimation of the frequency of occurrence of incidents ( Sherman 1996 ). To counter irrational risk perceptions as a result of media attention, it has been proposed to provide audiences with added context when they are presented with negative and isolated events that do not reflect a negative long-term global trend ( Skovsgaard and Andersen 2020 ). Contextualizing news stories in such a way might avoid that people automatically extrapolate risk assessments and draw overly negative conclusions about travel safety based on negative news on isolated aviation accidents. From an alternative perspective, it has been argued that the focus on negative and rare events serve a certain alarming function in society. This so-called “burglar alarm news standard” argues how negativity in news draws people’s attention to urgent issues and signals important threats in society ( Zaller 2003 ). In numerous cases, such a surveillance function of professional journalists and mass media plays an important and functional role for society. Pressing real-life threats and risks need to be brought to the attention of the public and other actors such as politicians and policymakers. Being focused on the negative and highlighting things that go wrong can therefore be essential for journalism to fulfill a critical and investigative role within society. For example, in the context of aviation accidents, grounding all Boeing 737 MAX airplanes in the wake of two crashes on October 29, 2018 and March 10, 2019, partly under pressure of the media, possibly prevented more accidents due to the faulty software of these 737 planes. Yet, when such alarms ring all the time and for the wrong reason ( Bennett 2003 ), a distorted media reality is portrayed that can bias people’s understanding of the world around them. Here, the question is if there is actually something like a “neutral” or an “objective” worldview, as compared with a distorted worldview, that news media can cover to more accurately mirror the world. Overall, this paper argues that, although negativity in the news can be conducive at times, it becomes harmful when such news biases become disproportionate as they can lead to irrational risk-taking behavior.

As with any academic study, this research bared some limitations. First, in our aim to better understand the role of the news media in irrational fear perceptions in our contemporary world, we only incorporate the case of air and road traffic accidents. Accordingly, these findings are not straightforwardly generalizable to other contexts in which discrepancies exist between the media and actual reality. Second, it was beyond the scope of this study to also incorporate the content of the news articles about the accidents. Future research could, for example, look at what type of news values or frames are emphasized in most articles and if this increases over time in light of mediatization theory. Next, additional survey data for the same years on measures such as fear perceptions would have provided us with more psychological insights into why individuals would refrain from commercial air travel based on media coverage. In addition, the findings primarily document the relationship between media coverage, number of accidents and travel numbers on an aggregated level, rather than tracing the effect of news coverage on actual individual consumer choices. Consumer choices between different modes of travel might be jointly determined by alternative explanations that were not included in the model—e.g., gasoline prices and airline pricing or perceived survivability of a plane crash versus car crash. Yet, our analytical strategy incorporated several key control variables, which solidifies our confidence in the robustness of the observed relationship. These limitations notwithstanding, this study provides a valuable exploration of how irrational fear perceptions can be media inspired and how impactful a distorted worldview can be.

Toni G.L.A. van der Meer is an assistant professor of communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His research focuses on crisis communication, (negativity) bias in the supply and demand side of news, processes of mediatization, media and public framing of issues related to corporations, and misinformation.

Anne C. Kroon is an assistant professor of communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. Drawing on computational methods, Anne’s research primarily focuses on the role of algorithms in recruitment and hiring as a means to address bias, as well as (biased) presentation of minorities in media content. Her work appeared in Journals like Journal of Communication, Communication Research, and The International Journal of Press/Politics.

Rens Vliegenthart is a professor and scientific director of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the role of media in society, and specifically, the way media and politics interact. Recent publications occurred in a range of different journals.

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12.8 Spotlight on … Bias in Language and Research

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Avoid bias and stereotyping in your writing.
Evaluate sources for language bias and stereotyping.

When you begin any research project, it is important to have set checks and balances to ensure you are not unknowingly imposing your own biases into your research. A bias is a personal and usually unreasoned judgment, or a prejudice. Although it may be impossible to function without any bias (good or bad), you can consider possible components of bias in your research. No document can be completely objective, for all documents are created by people who have been socialized in some way; therefore, it is helpful to think about the biases of authors of research documents. Many researchers are clear about their biases and state them in introductions to their writings, whereas others may use—or omit—evidence in a way that implies bias for or against the topic.

As a student researcher, seek to be as transparent and critically self-reflective as possible about your preconceptions and language use. Although you will revisit the concept of bias in source selection in The Research Process: Where to Look for Existing Sources , in this section you will look at bias in topic choice and language use.

Language Bias

Language bias refers to words and expressions that are offensive, demeaning, or prejudicial toward individuals or groups on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, appearance, physical or mental abilities, or sexual orientation. One form of language bias is sexist language that includes only one gender. The most common occurrence is use of the word man or men to stand for all people—including those who are not male. Language has changed to be more inclusive, with terms such as firefighter replacing fireman and mail carrier replacing mailman .

Another kind of language bias focuses on people’s health or abilities, indicating a person as a “victim” of a certain disease or “suffering from it.” Use unbiased language to identify the person as someone “with X disease.” Similarly, refer to a “person who is blind” rather than a “blind person.” This kind of language focuses on the person, not the disease or ability.

To avoid language bias, follow these guidelines:

Use currently accepted terminology when referring to groups of people. If you are writing about a group of people and are unsure of the proper terminology, research the most recent usage patterns before you write. The same is true for pronoun references, about which you can find more information in Editing Focus: Pronouns and Pronouns .
Be sensitive when referring to people with disabilities by using a “people first” approach. For example, say “a person who uses a wheelchair” instead of “a wheelchair-bound person.”
Avoid stereotyping—that is, attributing positive or negative characteristics to people on the basis of groups to which they belong. Although not strictly linguistic, stereotyping comes through in making assumptions about people. A stereotypical attitude would be to assume that all or most rich people act in certain ways and, conversely, that all or most poor people act in certain ways. Another stereotypical attitude would be to assume that a person who comes from a particular area of the country adheres to a certain political agenda.

Assignment: Reviewing Your Research Essay for Language Bias

First, review your essay, and speculate as to biases or blocks you may have incorporated while researching and writing. Freewrite, reflecting on these possibilities. Next, go through your essay one section at a time, and highlight any people references, pronouns, biased language, and instances of possible stereotyping. Using the information above and your reflective freewrite, complete a bias chart like the one shown in Table 12.9 . Next, exchange your essay with two other classmates to see whether they detect bias of which you were unaware. After receiving feedback from two or three people, form a group and discuss what each of you found and how to use alternative language or references. Finally, revisit your freewriting after collaborating with your classmates to reconsider what you wrote before. Add a section to the freewrite in which you relate what your group discussed and what you may have learned from that discussion.

Publish Your Work

After completing your argumentative research paper, you should have a product to be proud of. Your instructor may have a plan to publish papers written by class members, or you may be interested in publishing on your own and joining a wider scholarly conversation. Consider submitting your work to one of these journals that publish undergraduate research:

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research
Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship
Liberated Arts: A Journal for Undergraduate Research
Reinvention: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research

In addition, if you have designed your research project as a solution to a local problem, consider finding venues to disseminate the information to those for whom it would be the most useful. This decision may mean adjusting the format, tone, language, and/or conventions of your work to address the needs of a specific audience.

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How Does Implicit Bias Influence Behavior?

Strategies to Reduce the Impact of Implicit Bias

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Akeem Marsh, MD, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who has dedicated his career to working with medically underserved communities.

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Measurement
Discrimination

An implicit bias is an unconscious association, belief, or attitude toward any social group. Implicit biases are one reason why people often attribute certain qualities or characteristics to all members of a particular group, a phenomenon known as stereotyping .

It is important to remember that implicit biases operate almost entirely on an unconscious level . While explicit biases and prejudices are intentional and controllable, implicit biases are less so.

A person may even express explicit disapproval of a certain attitude or belief while still harboring similar biases on a more unconscious level. Such biases do not necessarily align with our own sense of self and personal identity. People can also hold positive or negative associations about their own race, gender, religion, sexuality, or other personal characteristics.

Causes of Implicit Bias

While people might like to believe that they are not susceptible to these implicit biases and stereotypes, the reality is that everyone engages in them whether they like it or not. This reality, however, does not mean that you are necessarily prejudiced or inclined to discriminate against other people. It simply means that your brain is working in a way that makes associations and generalizations.

In addition to the fact that we are influenced by our environment and stereotypes that already exist in the society into which we were born, it is generally impossible to separate ourselves from the influence of society.

You can, however, become more aware of your unconscious thinking and the ways in which society influences you.

It is the natural tendency of the brain to sift, sort, and categorize information about the world that leads to the formation of these implicit biases. We're susceptible to bias because of these tendencies:

We tend to seek out patterns . Implicit bias occurs because of the brain's natural tendency to look for patterns and associations in the world. Social cognition , or our ability to store, process, and apply information about people in social situations, is dependent on this ability to form associations about the world.
We like to take shortcuts . Like other cognitive biases , implicit bias is a result of the brain's tendency to try to simplify the world. Because the brain is constantly inundated with more information than it could conceivably process, mental shortcuts make it faster and easier for the brain to sort through all of this data.
Our experiences and social conditioning play a role . Implicit biases are influenced by experiences, although these attitudes may not be the result of direct personal experience. Cultural conditioning, media portrayals, and upbringing can all contribute to the implicit associations that people form about the members of other social groups.

How Implicit Bias Is Measured

The term implicit bias was first coined by social psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Tony Greenwald in 1995. In an influential paper introducing their theory of implicit social cognition, they proposed that social behavior was largely influenced by unconscious associations and judgments.

In 1998, Banaji and Greenwald published their now-famous Implicit Association Test (IAT) to support their hypothesis . The test utilizes a computer program to show respondents a series of images and words to determine how long it takes someone to choose between two things.

Subjects might be shown images of faces of different racial backgrounds, for example, in conjunction with either a positive word or a negative word. Subjects would then be asked to click on a positive word when they saw an image of someone from one race and to click on a negative word when they saw someone of another race.

Interpreting the Results

The researchers suggest that when someone clicks quickly, it means that they possess a stronger unconscious association. If a person quickly clicks on a negative word every time they see a person of a particular race, the researchers suggest that this would indicate that they hold an implicit negative bias toward individuals of that race.

In addition to a test of implicit racial attitudes, the IAT has also been utilized to measure unconscious biases related to gender, weight, sexuality, disability, and other areas. The IAT has grown in popularity and use over the last decade, yet has recently come under fire.

Among the main criticisms are findings that the test results may lack reliability . Respondents may score high on racial bias on one test, and low the next time they are tested.

Also of concern is that scores on the test may not necessarily correlate with individual behavior. People may score high for a type of bias on the IAT, but those results may not accurately predict how they would relate to members of a specific social group.

Link Between Implicit Bias and Discrimination

It is important to understand that implicit bias is not the same thing as racism, although the two concepts are related. Overt racism involves conscious prejudice against members of a particular racial group and can be influenced by both explicit and implicit biases.

Other forms of discrimination that can be influenced by unconscious biases include ageism , sexism, homophobia, and ableism.

One of the benefits of being aware of the potential impact of implicit social biases is that you can take a more active role in overcoming social stereotypes, discrimination, and prejudice.

Effects of Implicit Bias

Implicit biases can influence how people behave toward the members of different social groups. Researchers have found that such bias can have effects in a number of settings, including in school, work, and legal proceedings.

Implicit Bias in School

Implicit bias can lead to a phenomenon known as stereotype threat in which people internalize negative stereotypes about themselves based upon group associations. Research has shown, for example, that young girls often internalize implicit attitudes related to gender and math performance.

By the age of 9, girls have been shown to exhibit the unconscious beliefs that females have a preference for language over math. The stronger these implicit beliefs are, the less likely girls and women are to pursue math performance in school. Such unconscious beliefs are also believed to play a role in inhibiting women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Studies have also demonstrated that implicit attitudes can also influence how teachers respond to student behavior, suggesting that implicit bias can have a powerful impact on educational access and academic achievement.

One study, for example, found that Black children—and Black boys in particular—were more likely to be expelled from school for behavioral issues. When teachers were told to watch for challenging behaviors, they were more likely to focus on Black children than on White children.

Implicit Bias In the Workplace

While the Implicit Attitude Test itself may have pitfalls, these problems do not negate the existence of implicit bias. Or the existence and effects of bias, prejudice, and discrimination in the real world. Such prejudices can have very real and potentially devastating consequences.

One study, for example, found that when Black and White job seekers sent out similar resumes to employers, Black applicants were half as likely to be called in for interviews as White job seekers with equal qualifications.

Such discrimination is likely the result of both explicit and implicit biases toward racial groups.

Even when employers strive to eliminate potential bias in hiring, subtle implicit biases may still have an impact on how people are selected for jobs or promoted to advanced positions. Avoiding such biases entirely can be difficult, but being aware of their existence and striving to minimize them can help.

Implicit Bias in Healthcare Settings

Certainly, age, race, or health condition should not play a role in how patients get treated, however, implicit bias can influence quality healthcare and have long-term impacts including suboptimal care, adverse outcomes, and even death.

For example, one study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that physicians with high scores in implicit bias tended to dominate conversations with Black patients and, as a result, the Black patients had less confidence and trust in the provider and rated the quality of their care lower.

Researchers continue to investigate implicit bias in relation to other ethnic groups as well as specific health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, mental health, and substance use disorders.

Implicit Bias in Legal Settings

Implicit biases can also have troubling implications in legal proceedings, influencing everything from initial police contact all the way through sentencing. Research has found that there is an overwhelming racial disparity in how Black defendants are treated in criminal sentencing.

Not only are Black defendants less likely to be offered plea bargains than White defendants charged with similar crimes, but they are also more likely to receive longer and harsher sentences than White defendants.

Strategies to Reduce the Impact of Implict Bias

Implicit biases impact behavior, but there are things that you can do to reduce your own bias. Some ways that you can reduce the influence of implicit bias:

Focus on seeing people as individuals . Rather than focusing on stereotypes to define people, spend time considering them on a more personal, individual level.
Work on consciously changing your stereotypes . If you do recognize that your response to a person might be rooted in biases or stereotypes, make an effort to consciously adjust your response.
Take time to pause and reflect . In order to reduce reflexive reactions, take time to reflect on potential biases and replace them with positive examples of the stereotyped group.
Adjust your perspective . Try seeing things from another person's point of view. How would you respond if you were in the same position? What factors might contribute to how a person acts in a particular setting or situation?
Increase your exposure . Spend more time with people of different racial backgrounds. Learn about their culture by attending community events or exhibits.
Practice mindfulness . Try meditation, yoga, or focused breathing to increase mindfulness and become more aware of your thoughts and actions.

While implicit bias is difficult to eliminate altogether, there are strategies that you can utilize to reduce its impact. Taking steps such as actively working to overcome your biases , taking other people's perspectives, seeking greater diversity in your life, and building your awareness about your own thoughts are a few ways to reduce the impact of implicit bias.

A Word From Verywell

Implicit biases can be troubling, but they are also a pervasive part of life. Perhaps more troubling, your unconscious attitudes may not necessarily align with your declared beliefs. While people are more likely to hold implicit biases that favor their own in-group, it is not uncommon for people to hold biases against their own social group as well.

The good news is that these implicit biases are not set in stone. Even if you do hold unconscious biases against other groups of people, it is possible to adopt new attitudes, even on the unconscious level. This process is not necessarily quick or easy, but being aware of the existence of these biases is a good place to start making a change.

Jost JT. The existence of implicit bias is beyond reasonable doubt: A refutation of ideological and methodological objections and executive summary of ten studies that no manager should ignore . Research in Organizational Behavior . 2009;29:39-69. doi:10.1016/j.riob.2009.10.001

Greenwald AG, Mcghee DE, Schwartz JL. Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test . J Pers Soc Psychol. 1998;74(6):1464-1480. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464

Sabin J, Nosek BA, Greenwald A, Rivara FP. Physicians' implicit and explicit attitudes about race by MD race, ethnicity, and gender . J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2009;20(3):896-913. doi:10.1353/hpu.0.0185

Capers Q, Clinchot D, McDougle L, Greenwald AG. Implicit racial bias in medical school admissions . Acad Med . 2017;92(3):365-369. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001388

Kiefer AK, Sekaquaptewa D. Implicit stereotypes and women's math performance: How implicit gender-math stereotypes influence women's susceptibility to stereotype threat . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2007;43(5):825-832. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.08.004

Steffens MC, Jelenec P, Noack P. On the leaky math pipeline: Comparing implicit math-gender stereotypes and math withdrawal in female and male children and adolescents . Journal of Educational Psychology. 2010;102(4):947-963. doi:10.1037/a0019920

Edward Zigler Center in Child Development & Social Policy, Yale School of Medicine. Implicit Bias in Preschool: A Research Study Brief .

Pager D, Western B, Bonikowski B. Discrimination in a low-wage labor market: A field experiment . Am Sociol Rev. 2009;74(5):777-799. doi:10.1177/000312240907400505

Malinen S, Johnston L. Workplace ageism: Discovering hidden bias . Exp Aging Res. 2013;39(4):445-465. doi:10.1080/0361073X.2013.808111

Cooper LA, Roter DL, Carson KA, et al. The associations of clinicians' implicit attitudes about race with medical visit communication and patient ratings of interpersonal care . Am J Public Health . 2012;102(5):979-87. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300558

Leiber MJ, Fox KC. Race and the impact of detention on juvenile justice decision making . Crime & Delinquency. 2005;51(4):470-497. doi:10.1177/0011128705275976

Van Ryn M, Hardeman R, Phelan SM, et al. Medical school experiences associated with change in implicit racial bias among 3547 students: A medical student CHANGES study report . J Gen Intern Med. 2015;30(12):1748-1756. doi:10.1007/s11606-015-3447-7

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Argument Essay

Writing for success: argument.

This section will help you determine the purpose and structure of an argumentative essay.

The Purpose of Argument in Writing

The idea of an argument often conjures up images of two people yelling and screaming in anger. In writing, however, an argument is very different. An argument is a reasoned opinion supported and explained by evidence. To argue in writing is to advance knowledge and ideas in a positive way. Written arguments often fail when they employ ranting rather than reasoning.

The Structure of an Argumentative Essay

The following five features make up the structure of an argumentative essay:

Introduction and thesis
Opposing and qualifying ideas
Strong evidence in support of claim
Style and tone of language
A compelling conclusion

Creating an Introduction and Thesis

The argumentative essay begins with an engaging introduction that presents the general topic. The thesis typically appears somewhere in the introduction and states the writer’s point of view.

Acknowledging Opposing Ideas and Limits to Your Argument

Because an argument implies differing points of view on the subject, you must be sure to acknowledge those opposing ideas. Avoiding ideas that conflict with your own gives the reader the impression that you may be uncertain, fearful, or unaware of opposing ideas. Thus it is essential that you not only address counterarguments but also do so respectfully.

Acknowledging points of view different from your own also has the effect of fostering more credibility between you and the audience. They know from the outset that you are aware of opposing ideas and that you are not afraid to give them space.

It is also helpful to establish the limits of your argument and what you are trying to accomplish. In effect, you are conceding early on that your argument is not the ultimate authority on a given topic. Such humility can go a long way toward earning credibility and trust with an audience. Audience members will know from the beginning that you are a reasonable writer, and audience members will trust your argument as a result. For example, in the following concessionary statement, the writer advocates for stricter gun control laws, but she admits it will not solve all of our problems with crime:

Such a concession will be welcome by those who might disagree with this writer’s argument in the first place. To effectively persuade their readers, writers need to be modest in their goals and humble in their approach to get readers to listen to the ideas. Certain transitional words and phrases aid in keeping the reader oriented in the sequencing of a story. Some of these phrases are listed here:

Phrases of Concession

Bias in Writing

The Use of I in Writing

Be mindful of the use of I in your writing because it can make your argument sound overly biased. There are two primary reasons:

Excessive repetition of any word will eventually catch the reader’s attention—and usually not in a good way. The use of I is no different.
The insertion of I into a sentence alters not only the way a sentence might sound but also the composition of the sentence itself. I is often the subject of a sentence. If the subject of the essay is supposed to be, say, smoking, then by inserting yourself into the sentence, you are effectively displacing the subject of the essay into a secondary position. In the following example, the subject of the sentence is underlined:

Smoking is bad. I think smoking is bad.

Developing Sound Arguments

Use the following checklist to develop sound arguments in your essay:

An engaging introduction
A reasonable, specific thesis that is able to be supported by evidence
A varied range of evidence from credible sources
Respectful acknowledgement and explanation of opposing ideas
A style and tone of language that is appropriate for the subject and audience
Acknowledgement of the argument’s limits
A conclusion that will adequately summarize the essay and reinforce the thesis

Fact and Opinion

Opinions are personal views, or judgments. An opinion is what an individual believes about a particular subject. However, an opinion in argumentation must have legitimate backing; adequate evidence and credibility should support the opinion. Consider the credibility of expert opinions. Experts in a given field have the knowledge and credentials to make their opinion meaningful to a larger audience.

In writing, you want to strike a balance between credible facts and authoritative opinions. Relying on one or the other will likely lose more of your audience than it gains.

The word prove is frequently used in the discussion of argumentative writing. Writers may claim that one piece of evidence or another proves the argument, but proving an argument is often not possible. No evidence proves a debatable topic one way or the other; that is why the topic is debatable. Facts can be proved, but opinions can only be supported, explained, and persuaded.

Using Visual Elements to Strengthen Arguments

Adding visual elements to a persuasive argument can often strengthen its persuasive effect. There are two main types of visual elements: quantitative visuals and qualitative visuals.

Quantitative visuals present data graphically and visually. They allow the audience to see statistics spatially. The purpose of using quantitative visuals is to make logical appeals to the audience. For example, sometimes it is easier to understand the disparity in certain statistics if you can see how the disparity looks graphically. Bar graphs, pie charts, Venn diagrams, histograms, line graphs and infographics are all ways of presenting quantitative data in visual and/or spatial dimensions.

Qualitative visuals present images that appeal to the audience’s emotions. Photographs and pictorial images are examples of qualitative visuals. Such images often try to convey a story, and seeing an actual example can carry more power than hearing or reading about the example. For example, one image of a child suffering from malnutrition will likely have more of an emotional impact than pages dedicated to describing that same condition in writing.

Writing an Argumentative Essay

Choose a topic that you feel passionate about. If your instructor requires you to write about a specific topic, approach the subject from an angle that interests you. Begin your essay with an engaging introduction. Your thesis should typically appear somewhere in your introduction.

Start by acknowledging and explaining points of view that may conflict with your own to build credibility and trust with your audience. Also state the limits of your argument. This too helps you sound more reasonable and honest to those who may naturally be inclined to disagree with your view. By respectfully acknowledging opposing arguments and conceding limitations to your own view, you set a measured and responsible tone for the essay.

Make your appeals in support of your thesis by using sound, credible evidence. Use a balance of facts and opinions from a wide range of sources, such as scientific studies, expert testimony, statistics, and personal anecdotes. Each piece of evidence should be fully explained and clearly stated.

Make sure that your style and tone are appropriate for your subject and audience. Tailor your language and word choice to these two factors, while still being true to your own voice.

Finally, write a conclusion that effectively summarizes the main argument and reinforces your thesis.

Argumentative Essay Example

Universal Health Care Coverage for the United States

By Scott McLean

The United States is the only modernized Western nation that does not offer publicly funded health care to all its citizens; the costs of health care for the uninsured in the United States are prohibitive, and the practices of insurance companies are often more interested in profit margins than providing health care. These conditions are incompatible with US ideals and standards, and it is time for the US government to provide universal health care coverage for all its citizens. Like education, health care should be considered a fundamental right of all US citizens, not simply a privilege for the upper and middle classes.

One of the most common arguments against providing universal health care coverage (UHC) is that it will cost too much money. In other words, UHC would raise taxes too much. While providing health care for all US citizens would cost a lot of money for every tax-paying citizen, citizens need to examine exactly how much money it would cost, and more important, how much money is “too much” when it comes to opening up health care for all. Those who have health insurance already pay too much money, and those without coverage are charged unfathomable amounts. The cost of publicly funded health care versus the cost of current insurance premiums is unclear. In fact, some Americans, especially those in lower income brackets, could stand to pay less than their current premiums.

However, even if UHC would cost Americans a bit more money each year, we ought to reflect on what type of country we would like to live in, and what types of morals we represent if we are more willing to deny health care to others on the basis of saving a couple hundred dollars per year. In a system that privileges capitalism and rugged individualism, little room remains for compassion and love. It is time that Americans realize the amorality of US hospitals forced to turn away the sick and poor. UHC is a health care system that aligns more closely with the core values that so many Americans espouse and respect, and it is time to realize its potential.

Another common argument against UHC in the United States is that other comparable national health care systems, like that of England, France, or Canada, are bankrupt or rife with problems. UHC opponents claim that sick patients in these countries often wait in long lines or long wait lists for basic health care. Opponents also commonly accuse these systems of being unable to pay for themselves, racking up huge deficits year after year. A fair amount of truth lies in these claims, but Americans must remember to put those problems in context with the problems of the current US system as well. It is true that people often wait to see a doctor in countries with UHC, but we in the United States wait as well, and we often schedule appointments weeks in advance, only to have onerous waits in the doctor’s “waiting rooms.”

Critical and urgent care abroad is always treated urgently, much the same as it is treated in the United States. The main difference there, however, is cost. Even health insurance policy holders are not safe from the costs of health care in the United States. Each day an American acquires a form of cancer, and the only effective treatment might be considered “experimental” by an insurance company and thus is not covered. Without medical coverage, the patient must pay for the treatment out of pocket. But these costs may be so prohibitive that the patient will either opt for a less effective, but covered, treatment; opt for no treatment at all; or attempt to pay the costs of treatment and experience unimaginable financial consequences. Medical bills in these cases can easily rise into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is enough to force even wealthy families out of their homes and into perpetual debt. Even though each American could someday face this unfortunate situation, many still choose to take the financial risk. Instead of gambling with health and financial welfare, US citizens should press their representatives to set up UHC, where their coverage will be guaranteed and affordable.

Despite the opponents’ claims against UHC, a universal system will save lives and encourage the health of all Americans. Why has public education been so easily accepted, but not public health care? It is time for Americans to start thinking socially about health in the same ways they think about education and police services: as rights of US citizens.

Key Takeaways

The purpose of argument in writing is to convince or move readers toward a certain point of view, or opinion.
An argument is a reasoned opinion supported and explained by evidence. To argue, in writing, is to advance knowledge and ideas in a positive way.
A thesis that expresses the opinion of the writer in more specific terms is better than one that is vague.
It is essential that you not only address counterarguments but also do so respectfully.
It is also helpful to establish the limits of your argument and what you are trying to accomplish through a concession statement.
To persuade a skeptical audience, you will need to use a wide range of evidence. Scientific studies, opinions from experts, historical precedent, statistics, personal anecdotes, and current events are all types of evidence that you might use in explaining your point.
Make sure that your word choice and writing style is appropriate for both your subject and your audience.
You should let your reader know your bias, but do not let that bias blind you to the primary components of good argumentation: sound, thoughtful evidence and respectfully and reasonably addressing opposing ideas.
You should be mindful of the use of I in your writing because it can make your argument sound more biased than it needs to.
Facts are statements that can be proven using objective data.
Opinions are personal views, or judgments, that cannot be proven.
In writing, you want to strike a balance between credible facts and authoritative opinions.
Quantitative visuals present data graphically. The purpose of using quantitative visuals is to make logical appeals to the audience.
Qualitative visuals present images that appeal to the audience’s emotions.
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81 Considering Multiple Views & Avoiding Bias

Considering multiple views, are multiple views being considered through depth and breadth.

When writing or speech is deep, it covers the complexity of a topic. It doesn’t skim the surface. It dives deeply into the profound knowledge and substantial understanding of a topic. This detailed explanation along with examples is depth , which also includes attention to rhetorical devices (pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos).

When analyzing the depth of any essay, including their own essays and those of their peers, students can ask these types of questions:

How deeply does this essay go into its topic?
Is it detailed enough?
Did it go far enough into the research and reviews of other texts to demonstrate a deep knowledge about the subject? ( Digging into what others have said about your topic, a particular text you’re working with, or the people involved is often where you can often find opposing views ).
How thoroughly have specific subtopics within a major been researched?

Breadth is how broad or wide a topic has been discussed in writing or in speech. For example, to attain breadth in a persuasive essay, a writer must consider not only one point of view, but all the multiple major perspectives about an issue. Breadth also entails considering multiple contexts of an issue and multiple analytical approaches to solving a problem.

Breadth means reading more than a handful of articles supporting one side of an issue; it means reading more articles supporting various perspectives so the writer can truly understand all viewpoints about the issue and can discuss the issue with breadth that builds a deeper understanding and fairness. When analyzing the breadth of any essay, students and instructors ask questions such as the following:

Is the content of an essay sufficiently comprehensive enough to cover a wide range of perspectives and angles on a given topic?
Is anything missing that should be included in the scope of the topic and which would help the essay achieve enough breadth?
Has the opposing view (i.e., the “naysayer’s” perspective) been explored so as to strengthen the writer’s own argument? (This consideration is particularly key in the development of a fully supported and wisely composed persuasive or argumentative essay.)
What has not yet been considered to make this idea or essay complete?

Avoiding Bias

Fairness: is it objective and judicious.

When analyzing the fairness of any work, students and instructors ask questions such as the following:

Does the writer of this essay exhibit the ability to fairly assess the viewpoints of others, even opposing viewpoints?
Are there any fallacies, such as ad hominems that unfairly label opponents rather than speak directly and precisely about the opposing argument or POV itself? (Note: The term “ad hominem” is short for “argumentum ad hominem” and is a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.)
Does the writer or speaker have a conflict of interest? Does that conflict of interest appear as bias in the text?

When analyzing our own work (discussions and writings), these questions are crucial:

What about our own biases? Are we aware of and addressing our own biases? How can we move beyond those?

Check out this video on implicit vs. explicit bias:

Check out this video on avoiding biased language :

English Composition by Contributing Authors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Considering Multiple Views & Avoiding Bias Copyright © 2020 by Liza Long; Amy Minervini; and Joel Gladd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Knowledge Base
How to write an essay outline | Guidelines & examples

How to Write an Essay Outline | Guidelines & Examples

Published on August 14, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An essay outline is a way of planning the structure of your essay before you start writing. It involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you will cover in each paragraph , giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold.

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Organizing your material, presentation of the outline, examples of essay outlines, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay outlines.

At the stage where you’re writing an essay outline, your ideas are probably still not fully formed. You should know your topic and have already done some preliminary research to find relevant sources , but now you need to shape your ideas into a structured argument.

Creating categories

Look over any information, quotes and ideas you’ve noted down from your research and consider the central point you want to make in the essay—this will be the basis of your thesis statement . Once you have an idea of your overall argument, you can begin to organize your material in a way that serves that argument.

Try to arrange your material into categories related to different aspects of your argument. If you’re writing about a literary text, you might group your ideas into themes; in a history essay, it might be several key trends or turning points from the period you’re discussing.

Three main themes or subjects is a common structure for essays. Depending on the length of the essay, you could split the themes into three body paragraphs, or three longer sections with several paragraphs covering each theme.

As you create the outline, look critically at your categories and points: Are any of them irrelevant or redundant? Make sure every topic you cover is clearly related to your thesis statement.

Order of information

When you have your material organized into several categories, consider what order they should appear in.

Your essay will always begin and end with an introduction and conclusion , but the organization of the body is up to you.

Consider these questions to order your material:

Is there an obvious starting point for your argument?
Is there one subject that provides an easy transition into another?
Do some points need to be set up by discussing other points first?

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Within each paragraph, you’ll discuss a single idea related to your overall topic or argument, using several points of evidence or analysis to do so.

In your outline, you present these points as a few short numbered sentences or phrases.They can be split into sub-points when more detail is needed.

The template below shows how you might structure an outline for a five-paragraph essay.

Thesis statement
First piece of evidence
Second piece of evidence
Summary/synthesis
Importance of topic
Strong closing statement

You can choose whether to write your outline in full sentences or short phrases. Be consistent in your choice; don’t randomly write some points as full sentences and others as short phrases.

Examples of outlines for different types of essays are presented below: an argumentative, expository, and literary analysis essay.

Argumentative essay outline

This outline is for a short argumentative essay evaluating the internet’s impact on education. It uses short phrases to summarize each point.

Its body is split into three paragraphs, each presenting arguments about a different aspect of the internet’s effects on education.

Importance of the internet
Concerns about internet use
Thesis statement: Internet use a net positive
Data exploring this effect
Analysis indicating it is overstated
Students’ reading levels over time
Why this data is questionable
Video media
Interactive media
Speed and simplicity of online research
Questions about reliability (transitioning into next topic)
Evidence indicating its ubiquity
Claims that it discourages engagement with academic writing
Evidence that Wikipedia warns students not to cite it
Argument that it introduces students to citation
Summary of key points
Value of digital education for students
Need for optimism to embrace advantages of the internet

Expository essay outline

This is the outline for an expository essay describing how the invention of the printing press affected life and politics in Europe.

The paragraphs are still summarized in short phrases here, but individual points are described with full sentences.

Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages.
Provide background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press.
Present the thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.
Discuss the very high levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe.
Describe how literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites.
Indicate how this discouraged political and religious change.
Describe the invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg.
Show the implications of the new technology for book production.
Describe the rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible.
Link to the Reformation.
Discuss the trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention.
Describe Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation.
Sketch out the large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics.
Summarize the history described.
Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period.

Literary analysis essay outline

The literary analysis essay outlined below discusses the role of theater in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park .

The body of the essay is divided into three different themes, each of which is explored through examples from the book.

Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
Introduce the research question : How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
Answer the research question
Indicate areas for further study

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

Ad hominem fallacy
Post hoc fallacy
Appeal to authority fallacy
False cause fallacy
Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

Choosing Essay Topic
Write a College Essay
Write a Diversity Essay
College Essay Format & Structure
Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

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You will sometimes be asked to hand in an essay outline before you start writing your essay . Your supervisor wants to see that you have a clear idea of your structure so that writing will go smoothly.

Even when you do not have to hand it in, writing an essay outline is an important part of the writing process . It’s a good idea to write one (as informally as you like) to clarify your structure for yourself whenever you are working on an essay.

If you have to hand in your essay outline , you may be given specific guidelines stating whether you have to use full sentences. If you’re not sure, ask your supervisor.

When writing an essay outline for yourself, the choice is yours. Some students find it helpful to write out their ideas in full sentences, while others prefer to summarize them in short phrases.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

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Caulfield, J. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Outline | Guidelines & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/essay-outline/

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Essay: The negative effects of implicit bias in schools (Newsworks)

Last week at Colgate University in central New York, reports of a black male carrying a gun — which in reality was a Colgate student carrying a glue gun for a school project — prompted school officials to put the campus on lockdown. In a message to the university, President Brian W. Casey wrote: "It is important that we understand the role that implicit racial bias had in the initial reporting of and responses to the events of last night."

African Americans have learned to expect bias in their lives from an early age, and very little has been done to counteract the effects associated with implicit biases. If black students experience the effects of implicit bias from the first day they step into a school, how can we expect them to develop healthy or positive attitudes toward authority figures later in life? While we may think of ourselves as unbiased, it is important for educators to recognize and purposefully counteract any effects of implicit bias by beginning with staff and then spreading understanding beyond schools and into the public mindset.

Implicit bias — unconscious attitudes and stereotypes used by the brain to make decision-making more efficient — often alters our actions and decisions in high-stress and split-second situations. When bias relates to preferred foods or colors, very few — if any — negative consequences occur. However, implicit bias often enters our judgments related to other people based on skin color, ethnicity, language, and other traits. In schools, the effects of implicit bias on students of color have been linked directly to excessive discipline , lower teacher expectations , and over-critical grading procedures; and linked indirectly to higher dropout rates, future incarceration, and lower higher education outcomes .

Experiences of implicit bias and related differences in treatment of individuals by race starts at an early age. A study by Yale University faculty found that preschool teachers looking to prevent behavioral problems focused on black male students significantly more than their peers. National data sets show K-12 black students received suspensions and expulsions at rates higher than students of all other races, and they experienced out-of-school-suspensions 3.8 times more often than white students. Resulting differences in discipline exposure by race lead to juvenile incarceration, lower graduation rates, diminishing academic achievement, higher incidences of future poverty, and high costs to taxpayers through assistance programs and extended time in the K-12 school system.

To begin lessening the effects of implicit bias, schools must provide professional development opportunities to make teachers aware of implicit bias and the different ways it might impact students. Data collection and analyses in the form of equity audits provide clear information as to where implicit bias most severely impacts students. Schools need to implement policies that allow for adequate time for teachers to react to and respond to the academic, disciplinary, and social needs of students. Recognition of culture must become an integral part of school climate and be allowed to grow and change based on the population of students served by the school.

Personal bias mitigation can begin with systemic self-examination. The Implicit Associations Test , developed by social psychologists, is a tool that assesses levels of implicit bias in several categories. Although it is difficult, individuals may begin to change their levels of implicit bias by reading stories that go against popular beliefs about people or cultures and experiencing examples of strong and/or successful people of color. Individuals must share awareness of bias with local communities or workplaces and practice making informed decisions and thoughtful reactions when working through situations subject to bias. Every situation will be different, but beginning to identify and address one’s own implicit biases is an important first step toward the realization of a more just and equitable society.

Dr. Beachum is the Bennett Professor of Urban School Leadership at Lehigh University. He is also the program director and an associate professor in the Educational Leadership program in the College of Education. Gina Gullo recently completely her doctorate in Educational Leadership at Lehigh University.

Printed May 9, 2017 in Newsworks

6.2 THE BIG PICTURE: Using Outside Sources of Information

When you think you found information useful for your academic research essay, stop and ask yourself these questions:

Do you really understand the information from the outside source?
How much of the information source do you need in your essay? A word or phrase? A sentence? A whole paragraph?
Can you paraphrase the information? Or do you need to quote the author’s actual words?

When you are ready to proceed, remember this: Information from outside sources cannot stand alone. You must provide context to your paraphrase or quotation. You must help your reader see how the information is relevant and connected. One easy method is to make a “quotation sandwich.” This method makes sure that information from outside sources is always supporting your own ideas or claims, not taking their place.

The “quotation sandwich”

Writing an academic research essay is like having a conversation with outside sources of information. Just as with a friend or colleague, conversation is a two-way street. This is the “they say / I say” approach to academic writing. It’s a natural back and forth in which you use outsides sources to support your own claims — or as something to argue against — in order to illustrate a point. The “quotation sandwich” is one very effective way to do this. And here’s how it is done.

As you can imagine, most sandwiches have two pieces of bread with a filling in the middle. A “quotation sandwich” is similar. You, your voice, is the bread. The quote, your source’s voice, is the filling. When you put it all together, you’re providing your reader with the necessary context to understand why you are using the quote (relevance) and what it means to your thesis (implication).

Remember, quotes alone don’t make your point for you. Like your instructor, they can’t do your work for you; they can only help you. You have to do the heavy lifting by providing context.

Here’s another way to look at how to make the three ingredients of a “quotation sandwich”:

The first sentence (the top layer of bread) is your claim that you want to make related to your thesis.
The second sentence has two parts (think of it as the peanut butter and the jelly): the introduction to the quotation and the quotation itself
The third sentence (the bottom layer of bread) is an interpretation or explanation of the quotation and how it relates to your claim

Let’s look at an example. Try to identify the three parts of this “quotation sandwich” below:

Great respect is often awarded to people who claim to have a lot of experience, but that experience is not necessarily always filled with success. The prolific Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, for example, suggested that “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes” (“BrainyQuote”). In other words, the wisdom that is associated with experience is based as much on a person’s failures as it is on their successes. Works Cited “BrainyQuote.” BrainyQuote, BrainyQuote, 2019, www.brainyquote.com/authors/oscar-wilde-quotes. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.

Here’s the sample “quotation sandwich” again, this time with a description of each layer:

Verbs of attribution

Yourdictionary.com defines attribution as “the act of giving someone credit for doing something.” In the previous sentence, I used the verb “defines” as a verb of attribution. I wanted you to know who or what provided that information.

The verb “to say” does the job of attribution all right, but it’s neither precise nor interesting. And in a long essay with multiple quotes and paraphrases, repeated use of the same verb of attribution can be distracting and boring. Furthermore, some editors restrict the verb “to say” for use only when someone was actually uttered aloud, though in real life we tend to use it even when reporting written communication (for example, The red sign says “Stop.”).

Some common verbs of attribution include:

NOTE: All of these examples are in the present simple verb tense because we usually use the present simple verb tense when using information from outside sources. In some ways, that makes it easier for us to control verb form; however, we must remember to proofread carefully for subject-verb agreement (a singular subject requires a singular form of the verb, while a plural subject requires a plural form of the verb).

Quotation sandwiches are good for you and your writing! Let’s try to make some. First, watch the video below. Then think of your favorite quotation by a famous person or search the internet for one. Share that quotation here in the form of a quotation sandwich. Your should use at least three sentences:

Some sort of claim that you want to make
The quotation that supports your claim (including the person’s name)
Your interpretation or explanation of the quotation

Text adapted from: Guptill, Amy. Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence . 2022. Open SUNY Textbooks, 2016, milneopentextbooks.org/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence/ . Accessed 16 Jan. 2022. CC BY-NC-SA

Video from: Gielissen, Theresa. “How to Do Quote Sandwiches.” www.youtube.com, 17 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9qzqq1T6AM&feature=emb_imp_woyt . Accessed 17 Jan. 2022.

Writing for Success: Argument

This section will help you determine the purpose and structure of an argumentative essay.

The Purpose of Argument in Writing

The Structure of an Argumentative Essay

The following five features make up the structure of an argumentative essay:

Introduction and thesis
Opposing and qualifying ideas
Strong evidence in support of claim
Style and tone of language
A compelling conclusion

Creating an Introduction and Thesis

The argumentative essay begins with an engaging introduction that presents the general topic. The thesis typically appears somewhere in the introduction and states the writer’s point of view.

Acknowledging Opposing Ideas and Limits to Your Argument

Because an argument implies differing points of view on the subject, you must be sure to acknowledge those opposing ideas. Avoiding ideas that conflict with your own gives the reader the impression that you may be uncertain, fearful, or unaware of opposing ideas. Thus it is essential that you not only address counterarguments but also do so respectfully.

It is also helpful to establish the limits of your argument and what you are trying to accomplish. In effect, you are conceding early on that your argument is not the ultimate authority on a given topic. Such humility can go a long way toward earning credibility and trust with an audience. Audience members will know from the beginning that you are a reasonable writer, and audience members will trust your argument as a result. For example, in the following concessionary statement, the writer advocates for stricter gun control laws, but she admits it will not solve all of our problems with crime:

Phrases of Concession

Bias in Writing

The Use of I in Writing

Be mindful of the use of I in your writing because it can make your argument sound overly biased. There are two primary reasons:

Excessive repetition of any word will eventually catch the reader’s attention—and usually not in a good way. The use of I is no different.
The insertion of I into a sentence alters not only the way a sentence might sound but also the composition of the sentence itself. I is often the subject of a sentence. If the subject of the essay is supposed to be, say, smoking, then by inserting yourself into the sentence, you are effectively displacing the subject of the essay into a secondary position. In the following example, the subject of the sentence is underlined:

Smoking is bad. I think smoking is bad.

Developing Sound Arguments

Use the following checklist to develop sound arguments in your essay:

An engaging introduction
A reasonable, specific thesis that is able to be supported by evidence
A varied range of evidence from credible sources
Respectful acknowledgement and explanation of opposing ideas
A style and tone of language that is appropriate for the subject and audience
Acknowledgement of the argument’s limits
A conclusion that will adequately summarize the essay and reinforce the thesis

Fact and Opinion

In writing, you want to strike a balance between credible facts and authoritative opinions. Relying on one or the other will likely lose more of your audience than it gains.

Using Visual Elements to Strengthen Arguments

Adding visual elements to a persuasive argument can often strengthen its persuasive effect. There are two main types of visual elements: quantitative visuals and qualitative visuals.

Writing an Argumentative Essay

Make sure that your style and tone are appropriate for your subject and audience. Tailor your language and word choice to these two factors, while still being true to your own voice.

Finally, write a conclusion that effectively summarizes the main argument and reinforces your thesis.

Argumentative Essay Example

Universal Health Care Coverage for the United States

By Scott McLean

Key Takeaways

The purpose of argument in writing is to convince or move readers toward a certain point of view, or opinion.
An argument is a reasoned opinion supported and explained by evidence. To argue, in writing, is to advance knowledge and ideas in a positive way.
A thesis that expresses the opinion of the writer in more specific terms is better than one that is vague.
It is essential that you not only address counterarguments but also do so respectfully.
It is also helpful to establish the limits of your argument and what you are trying to accomplish through a concession statement.
To persuade a skeptical audience, you will need to use a wide range of evidence. Scientific studies, opinions from experts, historical precedent, statistics, personal anecdotes, and current events are all types of evidence that you might use in explaining your point.
Make sure that your word choice and writing style is appropriate for both your subject and your audience.
You should let your reader know your bias, but do not let that bias blind you to the primary components of good argumentation: sound, thoughtful evidence and respectfully and reasonably addressing opposing ideas.
You should be mindful of the use of I in your writing because it can make your argument sound more biased than it needs to.
Facts are statements that can be proven using objective data.
Opinions are personal views, or judgments, that cannot be proven.
In writing, you want to strike a balance between credible facts and authoritative opinions.
Quantitative visuals present data graphically. The purpose of using quantitative visuals is to make logical appeals to the audience.
Qualitative visuals present images that appeal to the audience’s emotions.
Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : http://lumenlearning.com/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
Successful Writing. Provided by : Anonymous. Located at : http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/successful-writing/s14-09-persuasion.html . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Successful Writing. Authored by : Anonymous. Provided by : Anonymous. Located at : http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/successful-writing/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Table of Contents

Instructor Resources (Access Requires Login)

Overview of Instructor Resources

An Overview of the Writing Process

Introduction to the Writing Process
Introduction to Writing
Your Role as a Learner
What is an Essay?
Reading to Write
Defining the Writing Process
Videos: Prewriting Techniques
Thesis Statements
Organizing an Essay
Creating Paragraphs
Conclusions
Editing and Proofreading
Matters of Grammar, Mechanics, and Style
Peer Review Checklist
Comparative Chart of Writing Strategies

Using Sources

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Avoiding Plagiarism
Formatting the Works Cited Page (MLA)
Citing Paraphrases and Summaries (APA)
APA Citation Style, 6th edition: General Style Guidelines

Definition Essay

Definitional Argument Essay
How to Write a Definition Essay
Critical Thinking
Video: Thesis Explained
Effective Thesis Statements
Student Sample: Definition Essay

Narrative Essay

Introduction to Narrative Essay
Student Sample: Narrative Essay
"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
"Sixty-nine Cents" by Gary Shteyngart
Video: The Danger of a Single Story
How to Write an Annotation
How to Write a Summary
Writing for Success: Narration

Illustration/Example Essay

Introduction to Illustration/Example Essay
"She's Your Basic L.O.L. in N.A.D" by Perri Klass
"April & Paris" by David Sedaris
Writing for Success: Illustration/Example
Student Sample: Illustration/Example Essay

Compare/Contrast Essay

Introduction to Compare/Contrast Essay
"Disability" by Nancy Mairs
"Friending, Ancient or Otherwise" by Alex Wright
"A South African Storm" by Allison Howard
Writing for Success: Compare/Contrast
Student Sample: Compare/Contrast Essay

Cause-and-Effect Essay

Introduction to Cause-and-Effect Essay
"Cultural Baggage" by Barbara Ehrenreich
"Women in Science" by K.C. Cole
Writing for Success: Cause and Effect
Student Sample: Cause-and-Effect Essay

Argument Essay

Introduction to Argument Essay
Rogerian Argument
"The Case Against Torture," by Alisa Soloman
"The Case for Torture" by Michael Levin
How to Write a Summary by Paraphrasing Source Material
Student Sample: Argument Essay
Grammar/Mechanics Mini-lessons
Mini-lesson: Subjects and Verbs, Irregular Verbs, Subject Verb Agreement
Mini-lesson: Sentence Types
Mini-lesson: Fragments I
Mini-lesson: Run-ons and Comma Splices I
Mini-lesson: Comma Usage
Mini-lesson: Parallelism
Mini-lesson: The Apostrophe
Mini-lesson: Capital Letters
Grammar Practice - Interactive Quizzes
De Copia - Demonstration of the Variety of Language
Style Exercise: Voice

Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty

Battling implicit bias

Training is a cheap solution to a hard problem. it is the systems that allow for biased behaviour that need to change.

by Jeffrey To + BIO

On a Thursday afternoon in April 2018 in a Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia, police handcuffed two African American entrepreneurs, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson. A manager had reported them for waiting inside the coffeehouse while not having purchased anything. About a month later, on 29 May, Starbucks closed its 8,000 stores nationwide – at a cost of an estimated $16.7 million in sales – so that its 175,000 employees across the United States could participate in a four-hour ‘implicit bias’ training session that day.

Implicit bias was once jargon that academic psychologists used to refer to people’s automatically activated thoughts and feelings toward certain groups rather than others. Now, it’s a buzzword that regularly appears in news articles and, occasionally, presidential debates. Implicit biases stand in contrast to explicit biases, people’s conscious or self-reported thoughts and feelings toward certain groups over others, such as when people overtly voice dislike toward Asian people. Implicit biases are more subtle. You can think of them as tiny stories that flicker in our minds when we see other people. A pharmacy employee might see a Black woman crouching on the floor and zipping up a bag, and immediately think she’s attempting to steal, as indeed happened in 2015 at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto (which was later fined $8,000 for the discrimination). Or a border patrol officer might enforce an identity check upon Black citizens, thinking they pose a threat, as happened in the Netherlands in 2018; the Dutch appeal court this year ruled that unlawful.

The concept of implicit bias has captivated social psychologists for decades because it answers a perennial question: why is it that, while most people espouse diversity, they still discriminate? And why is it that, though they say – and genuinely believe – they want equality, they behave in ways that favour some groups over others? Indeed, a research study with more than 600,000 participants demonstrated that, while white participants self-report relatively neutral explicit biases toward Black people, they still hold anti-Black implicit biases; another research study found that citizens of 34 countries implicitly associate men with science, more so than they do women. The assumption that drives implicit bias research, then, is that these biases, unchecked, can substantially influence thoughts and behaviours, even among well-meaning people. For instance, foreign-sounding names from minority job applicants’ résumés receive fewer call-backs for job interviews than equally qualified white counterparts; men dominate leadership positions in fields like medicine even when there is no shortage of women.

So, implicit bias is a problem. What do most organisations do to solve it? Implicit bias training, sometimes known as ‘anti-bias training’ or ‘diversity training’, aims to reduce people’s implicit biases (how people think ), and thereby presumably reduce discrimination (how people act ). While the structure and content of these trainings can vary substantially, what typically happens is that, in one or two hours, an instructor provides attendees with a primer on implicit biases, explaining, for instance, the theory and evidence behind the concept; attendees then complete an Implicit Association Test ( IAT ), used to measure implicit biases, and reflect on their scores; and, finally, the instructor briefs attendees on ways to mitigate these biases (for instance, the National Institute of Health’s online implicit bias training module suggests employees ‘be transparent’ and ‘create a welcoming environment’. These trainings have become a burgeoning industry: McKinsey & Company estimated in 2017 that implicit bias training costs US companies $8 billion annually.

Scores of criticisms around these tests already exist online, but I can give you my sense of why they’re so ineffectual. I completed an ‘unconscious bias training’ module as part of a work orientation from my alma mater. (Note: unconscious bias and implicit bias are not actually the same.) After spending about 30 minutes watching three modules of content that were supposed to last 90 minutes (I fast-forwarded most of the videos), and completing the quizzes after each module, I was left feeling the same way as I did after going through a workplace orientation module: bored, exasperated, like I had wasted my time on another check-box exercise or diversity-posturing activity.

I’m also an implicit bias researcher, and here’s what the scientific literature says about these trainings: they largely don’t work. There are three main reasons why. First, the trainings conflate implicit biases with unconscious biases; this risks delegitimising discrimination altogether by attributing biased behaviour to the unconscious, which releases people from responsibility. Second, it’s very difficult to change people’s implicit biases, especially because social environments tend to reinforce them. And third, even if we could change people’s implicit biases, it wouldn’t necessarily change their discriminatory behaviours.

Here’s where I land: while trainings, at best, can help raise awareness of inequality, they should not take precedence over more meaningful courses of action, such as policy changes, that are more time intensive and costly but provide lasting changes. If organisations want to effect meaningful societal changes on discrimination, they should shift our focus away from implicit biases and toward changing systems that perpetuate biased behaviour.

T o understand all of this, it’s important to know how the common measurement tool for implicit biases – the IAT – works. (My lab is devoted to improving these kinds of tools.) The easiest way to understand what the test entails is to do one: the standard version measuring racial biases is publicly available through the website Project Implicit, a domain that houses IATs for a variety of topics (race, gender, sexual orientation). Otherwise, here’s a quick rundown. The IAT flashes on your screen two kinds of stimuli: faces, either of Black people or white people, and words, either good words (‘smile’, ‘honest’, ‘sincere’) or bad words (‘disaster’, ‘agony’, ‘hatred’). In some trials, you’re then asked to press ‘E’ on your keyboard if either a Black face or bad word is shown, and ‘I’ on your keyboard if either a white face or good word is shown.

But here’s where it gets tricky: what’s associated with each key mixes up as you progress. If in earlier trials ‘E’ means Black or bad, it can now mean Black or good (and ‘I’ white or bad ). Let’s say that you’re now slower to press ‘E’ when it pairs Black with good than when it pairs Black with bad . That could suggest you hold more negative implicit biases toward Black people compared with white people because you’re slower to respond to Black when linked with good than with bad. (The ‘ compared with ’ is important here; the standard IAT evaluates one group relative to another.)

At the end of the test, people receive their IAT test score, which tells them which group they have an ‘automatic preference’ for. This is the part that can incite shock or horror because, when people see that they hold an automatic preference toward white people, it might lead them to believe that, while they thought they preached equality, they were subconsciously biased the entire time.

What some people get wrong, though, is that an automatic preference is not the same as an unconscious bias. Unconsciousness presumes an absence of awareness and thus conscious control. But an automatic preference doesn’t necessarily require either of those qualities. It’s like a habit, say nail-biting: you’ve associated stress with nail-biting so strongly that it doesn’t take long for stress to trigger you to bite your nails, but that doesn’t mean you’re not aware of it, that you can’t predict when it happens, or that you can’t, with effort, stop it when it happens.

We generally pardon wrongdoers if their offence was accidental as opposed to intentional

Numerous studies have shown that people can be aware of their implicit biases. One 2014 study by the psychologist Adam Hahn and his colleagues shows that people can generally predict their own IAT scores with a high degree of accuracy. They found an average correlation of r = .65 between participants’ predictions of their IAT scores and their actual IAT scores – a correlation that is typically considered large in psychological research; for instance , the heritability of IQ and education are also around that mark. If it were the case that people generally aren’t aware or conscious of their implicit biases, they wouldn’t be able to predict their IAT performance. Insofar as the IAT measures implicit biases, these biases are likely not unconscious.

Unfortunately, this misunderstanding remains widespread. For instance, an article by Christine Ro on the BBC in 2021 uses ‘implicit biases’ and ‘unconscious biases’ synonymously, as does an article on the website of the Office of Diversity and Outreach at the University of California San Francisco, an article by David Robson in The Guardian in 2021, and an article by Francesca Gino and Katherine Coffman in the Harvard Business Review in 2021.

To be clear, unconscious biases may exist, and just because someone might be aware of their implicit biases doesn’t mean they’re conscious of the effects of their biases on other people or that we can effectively control them.

But here’s why it’s important not to conflate ‘implicit bias’ and ‘unconscious bias’: claiming that discrimination arises from the unconscious psychologises it, presents discrimination as an unintentional act rather than a preventable consequence – and thereby enables people to feel less morally culpable for discriminating. One study from 2019 demonstrates this experimentally. The social psychologist Natalie Daumeyer and her colleagues at Yale showed participants a fabricated article in which both Democratic and Republican doctors demonstrated bias toward patients based on their own political ideology when they engaged in somewhat politicised health behaviours (say, gun ownership or marijuana use). In one condition, they read that the doctors were somewhat aware that they were treating patients differently. However, in the other condition, they defined bias as unconscious bias – the ‘attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in ways that we are typically not aware of’ – and also read that the doctors held no conscious knowledge that they treated their patients differently based on their own political views. Finally, participants completed a questionnaire measuring whether the doctor should be held responsible and whether they merit being punished.

What did they find? When the doctors were described as having no conscious knowledge of unfair treatment, participants rated them as needing to be held less accountable, and less deserving of punishment, compared with when the doctors’ behaviour was ascribed to conscious bias. Why the difference? Awareness signifies intentionality, and we generally pardon wrongdoers if their offence was accidental as opposed to intentional. This detail matters. If diversity practitioners perpetuate this notion that unconscious bias underlies daily acts of discrimination, they could reduce accountability toward perpetrators and prevent behaviour change.

E ven when implicit bias is conscious, it is notoriously hard to change. One study tested nine implicit bias interventions previously shown to reduce implicit biases, and found that these changes subsided after several hours or, at best, several days. That’s because, while biases might be an individual characteristic (similar to someone’s personality type or temperament), they require people’s social environment – work, family, political and technological circumstances, for instance – to make them accessible, as the social psychologist Keith Payne argues in ‘The Bias of Crowds’ (2017). If the environment does not change, the bias will return.

To support this view, consider the fact that IATs generally measure individuals’ implicit biases unreliably . In other words, the IAT score you receive today can differ from the IAT score you receive tomorrow.

Psychometricians consider IATs ‘noisy’ measures: your scores can fluctuate depending on context, for instance, your mental state (tired, anxious), your physical surroundings (with friends, with colleagues), and what you were exposed to before doing the test (for instance, if you watched Barbie before doing the IAT, you might be more primed to respond more positively to women in a gender-science IAT). So, changing people to shift biases may be a futile exercise: since our social environment heavily influences our biases, short-term implicit bias interventions can hope to achieve only temporary effects before the environment re-instates our initial biases.

It’s one thing to know whether the IAT measures implicit biases. But how – if at all – do these biases relate to behaviour? This question has been studied thoroughly, with four meta-analyses (studies that compile and analyse other studies) synthesising the findings of hundreds of studies that largely use the IAT. They converge on a common finding: while implicit biases do demonstrate a reliable correlation with individual behaviour, this correlation is generally weak; that’s why Project Implicit warns participants against using their IAT scores to diagnose anything meaningful about themselves.

Implicit biases at a regional level can be strongly associated with regional -level behavioural outcomes

On the other hand, in line with the ‘Bias of Crowds’ model, aggregating the scores of many people taking the IAT test at once can help us predict behaviour. The IAT poorly predicts the behaviour of one person, but what about taking the average IAT scores of an entire city or state, and correlating with outcomes?

One study, by the social psychologist Eric Hehman and his colleagues, provides some insight. They studied the implicit biases of more than 2 million residents across the US within their metro areas, and also drew from metro-area sociodemographic data using crowdsourced and fact-checked databases for measures like overall wealth, unemployment rate and overall crime levels. They found that, out of 14 variables, only one – greater anti-Black implicit bias among white residents of certain metro areas – significantly correlated with greater use of lethal force against Black people relative to the base rates of that metro area. For instance, metro areas in Wisconsin held higher anti-Black implicit bias on average, which correlated with higher use of lethal violence against Black people in that area. These findings, in line with the ‘Bias of Crowds’ model, highlight that, whereas implicit biases aren’t strongly associated with individual-level behaviour, implicit biases at a regional level can be strongly associated with regional- level behavioural outcomes, possibly because implicit biases reflect systemic, rather than personal, differences.

Note, however, that most studies on the relationship between implicit biases and behaviour, including the study by Hehman and colleagues, are correlational. Even if we could change people’s individual implicit biases, would that lead to a change in levels of discrimination? In other words, let’s say implicit bias training successfully reduced individual police officers’ implicit biases against Black people. Would that reduction in bias translate to them discriminating against a Black person less often?

One meta-analysis looked at 63 randomised experiments that used an IAT and a behavioural measure; and randomised experiments, unlike correlational studies, do allow us to infer some causation. Yet they just confirmed what others have found. Changes in measures like the IAT – at the individual level – do not relate to changes in individual behaviour toward other groups, demonstrating, again, that changing people’s minds is unlikely to work.

This finding shouldn’t strike us as surprising given the gap between attitudes and behaviours that has been documented again and again. That gap usually follows a principle of correspondence : the extent to which an attitude predicts behaviour usually depends on how well the attitude matches the behaviour. For example, attitudes specific to organ donor registration (‘How do you feel about registering yourself as an organ donor?’) are better predictors of registration behaviours than general attitudes about organ donation (‘In general, how do you feel about organ donation?’). IATs usually measure implicit biases toward broad groups, like Black people in comparison with white people, without more information about what they’re doing or where they are.

Furthermore, attitudes interact with context to predict behaviour. Most of us demonstrate a positive attitude toward exercise, for instance, but that doesn’t mean we’ll go to the gym this weekend: we don’t feel motivated, the gym might be closed, or the weather rainy. In the same way, someone might show a negative implicit bias toward Asian people, but that doesn’t mean they’ll behave negatively toward an Asian person upon meeting one. A classic study in 1934 by the sociology professor Richard LaPiere at Stanford University illustrates this point: when he drove through the US with a Chinese couple, they stopped at more than 250 restaurants and hotels and were refused service only once. Several months later, the owners were surveyed on whether they would serve Chinese people and 92 per cent said they would not.

G iven all this, the question that emerges, is: what can we really do ? Here’s what we don’t need: more implicit bias trainings. In fact, as an implicit bias researcher, I think that organisations should decentralise, or do away with, the concept of implicit biases entirely. Implicit biases, as an empirical concept, are interesting and potentially valuable. But as a tool for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) pedagogy? It just confuses people and distracts from the actual problem.

The reason why these trainings exist is because they are cheap, easily scalable solutions that, from an optics standpoint, allow organisations to prop up an image that they care about DEI when the actions accompanying the imparted values are often vacuous. It’s ironic, isn’t it: the very notion of implicit biases stands on the discrepancy between values and actions, but the concept just perpetuates this problem. Before organisations preach the dangers of implicit biases, they should look at their hiring systems, policies and practices that actually discriminate against minorities by putting them at a disadvantage.

Here’s what I think: let’s stop caring so much about how people think, and focus more on how people – and companies – behave. I’m partly inspired by the paper ‘Stuck on Intergroup Attitudes: The Need to Shift Gears to Change Intergroup Behaviors’ (2023) by the psychologist Markus Brauer. It argues that researchers and practitioners, rather than relying on interventions that change people’s attitudes, should focus on interventions that directly target behaviour. For instance, rather than asking a hiring manager to participate in a workshop to change their attitudes toward women applicants, an organisation could instead enforce hiring criteria prior to seeing an applicant pool to reduce the biasing effect of applicants’ gender. Research shows that this approach has already been used successfully. Biases don’t come from a vacuum: they’re triggered by certain cues – the colour of someone’s skin, their accent, or the clothes they wear – attached to people. So, if we hide biasing information when it matters, we could also mitigate the effects of bias.

Using hiring criteria is an obvious example, but behavioural science research reveals other creative ways to attenuate discrimination from the top down rather than the bottom up. For instance, besides concealing information, organisations can restructure the way they present choices to employees. In business, one common reason we don’t see as many women becoming leaders is that the leadership selection process requires them to self-promote and self-nominate. Yet women who assert themselves can incur backlash for behaving in this counterstereotypical way, causing them to step back from competition. Here’s where organisations can push back by leveraging a behavioural economics concept known as ‘defaults’ – they can shift the default so that nominating oneself is a decision that women need to actively opt out from – and, if they don’t opt out, they get an opportunity to get promoted.

These trainings should not exist until organisations try doing the structural work first

The management professor Joyce He at the University of California, Los Angeles and her colleagues demonstrated the efficacy of this intervention in their study in 2021. On the recruitment platform Upwork, they recruited 477 freelancers for a data-entry job. At one point, they gave the freelancers (who were unaware of the experiment) the ability to choose between two tasks: a standard data-scraping task, paid at $5 per hour base compensation with a $0.25 bonus commission, or a more advanced, higher-paying task, paid at $7.50 base compensation with a $1 bonus commission. The freelancers had to compete with other workers for the advanced task and, if they didn’t win, they risked not earning any money at all. Here’s where defaults come in: in the opt-in condition, freelancers were by default enrolled in the standard non-competitive task, with the option to opt-in to the advanced task, whereas in the opt-out condition, the freelancers were by default enrolled in the advanced competitive task, with the option to opt-out to the standard task. They found a statistically significant gender gap between men and women freelancers in the opt-in condition (57 per cent of women versus 72.5 per cent of men chose to compete), whereas they did not find statistical significance in the opt-out condition.

To minimise biases and promote diversity and inclusion, we need to redesign biased processes to include more disadvantaged groups, rather than attempt to change people’s minds.

Still, I have two caveats. One is that structural ‘behavioural interventions’ are considered relatively low-hanging fruit compared with inclusive policies: policies that mitigate unequal wages between men and women, that increase access to paid parental leave, that reduce racial disparities, and that promote mentorship programmes for minorities – tackling the root causes of discrimination rather than symptoms. Furthermore, I don’t think that implicit bias training is useless , because, executed correctly (that is, using accurate science and emphasising behavioural strategies), it can be an effective awareness-building tool. And changing individual minds can catalyse structural changes. But I adamantly believe that these trainings should not exist until organisations try doing the structural work first .

And here’s another good thing about changing social structures: they can also impact individuals’ biases – and at a large scale. For instance, changing legislation can also change biases within a populace. One of my previous colleagues at McGill University, the intergroup relations researcher Eugene Ofosu, asked whether same-sex marriage legalisation was associated with reduced anti-gay implicit biases across US states. His team studied US IAT scores between 2005 and 2016, and what they found was striking. While the implicit anti-gay bias for each state, on average, decreased at a steady rate before same-sex marriage legislation, these biases decreased at a sharper rate following legalisation, even after controlling for demographic variables such as participants’ age and gender, as well as state-level factors such as education and income.

Legislation and policy don’t just tell us what to do, but what to think : they signal our social norms, the unwritten rules that define what’s acceptable and appropriate, that undergird our attitudes. Other studies also reinforce this point at an organisational level. Women working for companies perceived to have more gender-inclusive policies report more supportive interactions with their male colleagues, lower levels of workplace burnout, and a greater commitment to the organisation.

Stop distributing implicit bias training as a cure-all. Stop with the meaningless virtue-signalling. Stop selling these trainings under the guise of research. I get it. Trainings are easy. They’re cost effective. But one-off solutions do not work, and implicit bias is not really the problem. Biased systems and structures that allow for biased behaviour are the problem. Real DEI requires rebuilding biased systems from the ground up. It takes time. It requires top-down, versus bottom-up, change. It requires real accountability and leadership. Don’t ask how people can change their biases to get at diversity, equity and inclusion; ask what organisations and institutions have done – in their hiring systems, their DEI policy, or otherwise – to embody these values and provide every group an equal opportunity at success.

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Our tools shape our selves

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Creating an Outline for a Cause and Effect Essay

LESSON Among the most common college writing assignments is the cause and effect essay An essay that covers why and/or how something happened. This type of essay requires that an event or action led to one or more consequences. . You may be asked to examine a cause , in other words, a thing or person that is the source or origin of certain effects . Effects can take the form of actions A thing that is done, or the process of doing it. , phenomena Happenings or facts that can be observed. , states The condition that something is in. , problems, illnesses, environments, and so forth. Regardless of the cause and effect you select, the development of an outline A preliminary plan for a piece of a writing, often in the form of a list. It should include a topic, audience, purpose, thesis statement, and main and supporting points. is helpful. In this lesson, you will learn the two primary methods for organizing a cause and effect essay and how to select the method that best suits your subject matter.

Determining the Relationships Between Cause and Effect

It is important to understand what is cause and what is effect. While this may appear obvious in some cases, it is not always so. A cause may have multiple effects; a cause may in turn become an effect, as well.

For example:

I have decided to prepare breakfast for my family. While frying the bacon, I knock several eggs off the countertop. As I reach for a towel to clean up the mess, the dog jumps on the counter and knocks the sizzling bacon pan from the stove. Hot oil spills everywhere, burning my hands. The bacon also lands in the egg mess and becomes inedible. Breakfast is ruined and I am injured.

What is the cause of these effects? The initial cause of the accident could be said to be the falling of the eggs onto the floor. If that had not happened, the narrator would not have reached for a towel, giving the dog the opportunity to knock the pan of hot grease over. However, that effect—the dog knocking over the hot grease—is also a cause. The dog knocking over the hot grease led to severe hand burns. This is another effect. The dog knocking over the hot grease caused the bacon to fall into a puddle of uncooked egg, rendering it inedible. This is yet another effect. The effect is that breakfast was ruined and the narrator was injured.

This scenario is just one demonstration of the complexity of cause and effect and is often referred to as a causal chain A series of events, each triggered by the one before. Causal chains have three parts: the initial cause, the final consequence, and all the steps that link the cause to the effect. Also called "the domino effect." , or domino effect A sequence of events, each triggered by the one before. Another name for a causal chain, the domino effect, refers to the result of pushing over the first domino in a row of them - one domino knocks over the domino next to it, which falls and knocks over the domino next to it, and so on. , because a string of events building on each other leads to a final effect. This complexity is another reason why organizing your thoughts and ideas into an outline prior to writing a cause and effect essay is essential. Without adequate planning, you might miss an event in the causal chain or fail to make relationships between events in the causal chain clear.

There are two major ways to organize a cause and effect essay: many effects stem from one cause or many causes lead to one effect .

1. Many effects stem from one cause .

In this type of essay, you are outlining all the effects stemming from a single cause. It is critical as you approach a cause and effect essay that you make the relationships between the effects and cause clear, as in the preceding example. If you address many causes at the same time as many effects, it will be unclear to the reader how they are connected to each other.

Cause: Childhood obesity

Effects: A number of immediate and long-term health and psychosocial effects

Thesis statement: Today's parents have an obligation to help their children maintain a healthy weight because childhood obesity presents a number of negative health and psychosocial effects, both immediately and in the future.
Obesity can result in the development of cardiovascular diseases, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Obesity can put children in danger of pre-diabetes, a condition linked to increased potential for development of diabetes.
Obesity is linked to sleep apnea, a condition that contributes to insomnia, fatigue, and mental illness.
Obesity is known to negatively impact bones and joints.
Obesity contributes to a child's inability to participate in vital physical activities.
Obesity has the potential to bring on increased feelings of sadness, low self-esteem, and depression.
Obesity (and its related effects of hypertension and sleep apnea) can lead to anxiety.
Obesity may negatively influence the forming of essential peer groups and create a difficulty forming friendships.
Obesity may give rise to feelings of isolation due to the inability to participate in vital physical activities with schoolmates or peers.
Obese children are more likely to be bullied by their schoolmates or peers.
Obesity is associated with higher rates of heart disease later in life.
Obese children are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as adults.
Obesity increases the likelihood of adult stroke.
Obesity is linked to the adult development of osteoarthritis.
Children who are obese are at greater risk for continued obesity as adults.
Obesity increases the risk of long-term depression.
Obesity increases the risk for long-term anxiety.
Obese individuals experience increased loneliness due to difficulty in forming and sustaining long-term relationships.
Obese individuals are more likely to experience social isolation.
Obesity often invites criticism and judgment from peers, coworkers, family members, and communities at large.
Childhood obesity contributes to a number of dangerous, damaging, and potentially unavoidable short- and long-term physical, psychological, and social effects. Parents have the opportunity to encourage and foster healthful eating and exercise habits in their children so as to avoid the devastating consequences of childhood obesity.

As you can see in this outline, a number of immediate and long-term health and psychosocial effects (many effects) stem from childhood obesity (one cause). If you choose to organize your essay in this manner, it is important to clarify for your reader that while there could be multiple causes for the discussed effects, your essay is focused on one specific cause. For example, there are many potential causes of the effects listed in the outline, but this essay is focused on childhood obesity as the cause of those effects.

2. Many causes lead to one effect .

In this type of essay, you are outlining all the causes leading to a single effect. Again, avoid including more than one effect or it will be unclear which cause led to which effect.

Effect: childhood obesity

Causes: cost and availability of healthy foods, changes in the education system (increased seat time and decreased recess/gym), changes in family structure, and perception of decreased safety

Thesis statement: While many are quick to blame fast food and television for juvenile obesity, the actual causes are more varied and complex.
Many American families survive on minimum wage, making purchasing healthful foods financially difficult.
Many poor urban areas lack grocery stores.
Many poor urban areas are overrun with inexpensive and unhealthful fast-food restaurants.
Many schools, particularly in poor urban areas, can no longer afford to offer "special" courses, including physical education and after-school sports activities.
Schools have decreased recess time and increased seat time in order to extend study time for state tests.
School food is often unbalanced and unhealthy.
More families are comprised of single parents and/or dual working parents, leading to an increased number of "latch key" kids who are unable to play outside after school.
More families are comprised of parents who must work more than one job in order to support their children, leading to children's participation in sedentary afterschool programs or being left in the care of individuals who are unable to oversee outdoor playtime.
There is an increased number of Amber alerts (reports of child abductions).
Twenty-four-hour news coverage with headline stories of child abduction, inciting greater fear among parents and families.
While incidents of child abduction have actually decreased, parents are still unwilling to let children play outside.
While society's view of childhood obesity remains biased, there are in actuality a variety of causes contributing to the phenomenon that must be examined more closely.

In this outline, the cost and availability of healthy foods, changes in the education system, family structure, and perception of decreased safety (many causes) lead to childhood obesity (one effect) that the writer will develop when he or she writes this essay.

Whether you need to explain why a war happened or what happens when one adopts a regular exercise regimen, cause and effect essays are common college assignments. An understanding of how to organize a cause and effect essay will ensure that you develop a successful essay. Additionally, you can use the same technique when explaining to your boss why you should purchase a particular new piece of software.

Here is what a many effects stem from one cause outline might look like for the topic of cigarette smoking and teens.

Cigarette Smoking Among Teens and Immediate/Lifelong Physical Illness

Thesis statement: While teenage smoking may be on the decline, smoking as a teenager presents a number of immediate and future negative health effects associated with the nicotine, tar, and carcinogens found in smoked tobacco.
Recent studies have linked early cigarette smoking with damage to genetic materials related to the development of cancer.
Not only does the act of smoking a cigarette lead to a nearly instantaneous spike in blood pressure, it can result in increased blood pressure overall.
The nicotine released during cigarette smoking increases the smoker's heart rate and can result in increased heart rate overall.
Cigarette smoking has been linked to headaches, including being a trigger for migraines.
Cigarette smoking decreases the blood flow to the smoker's extremities, an effect that can contribute to cardiovascular problems.
Cigarette smoking often triggers coughing, bronchial spasms, and difficulty breathing.
Cigarette smoking increases the likelihood of bad breath.
Cigarette smoking has been linked to an increased likelihood of teenage acne and other skin problems.
Those who begin smoking at an early age—adolescence—are much more likely to become lifelong smokers.
Cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, increased blood pressure, and arterial blockages that restrict blood flow to the arms and legs, are long-term risks of smoking cigarettes.
Heart conditions, such as coronary heart disease, blocked arteries, and heart attacks are associated with cigarette smoking.
Smokers are at greater risk of developing respiratory diseases, such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, and lung cancer.
Smoking increases the likelihood of cancer in many organs beside just the lungs; for example, the esophagus, liver, pancreas, and stomach.
Smoking increases the likelihood of damage to tooth enamel, tooth staining, tooth loss, and gum disease.
Smoking increases the likelihood of premature and increased skin damage, including discoloration and wrinkles.
Cigarette smoking is associated with approximately twenty percent of all deaths in the United States each year.
Teenage smoking increases the potential for individuals to become adult and/or lifelong smokers, a habit that is associated with a number of dangerous, debilitating, and often deadly health issues. It is our responsibility, as a society, to do what we can to discourage teenage smoking so as to decrease the disease burden brought on by cigarette smoking and improve the overall health of our communities.

Here is what a many causes lead to one effect outline might look like for this topic.

Thesis statement: While many attribute the phenomenon of teenage smoking to advertising to minors, smoking in television shows and movies, and peer pressure, the actual causes are more varied and complex.
Many adolescents seek ways to "act out," i.e. to engage in attention-getting behaviors. Smoking may be one of those behaviors.
While smoking is less socially acceptable among teenage peer groups, it may appeal even more to those teens feeling alienated by their peer groups.
Although cigarettes are kept behind store counters today, and businesses are heavily fined for not checking identification of purchasers, there remain stores that bend those rules and sell tobacco to minors.
Young teen smokers can have their older peers, friends, siblings, or co-workers purchase their cigarettes.
Children of smokers have access to their parents' cigarettes.
Some tobacco can now be purchased online, with motivated teenagers able to find ways to bypass regulatory and safety systems.
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance.
Nicotine provides an enjoyable rush of pleasure and stress relief, often making it a substance upon which people become quickly dependent.
They may be hesitant to ask their parents for help out of fear of punishment or disappointment.
Addiction remains a highly stigmatized issue in our culture, eliciting embarrassment and shame.
Teenagers may lack the financial resources to seek their own smoking cessation treatment.
Teenagers may not wish to take advantage of health insurance programs around quitting smoking for fear of parental knowledge.
While there remains a societal perception that what keeps teenagers smoking is the glamorization of the act by Hollywood and Joe Camel, in actuality, there are a variety of causes contributing to the continued phenomenon that must be examined more closely.

Develop your own outlines for a cause and effect essay by creating both a many effects stem from one cause outline and a many causes lead to one effect outline.

Choose from one of these subjects:

A) Cell phone use while driving

B) Procrastination

D) Bullying

Sample Answer

Cell Phone Usage and Car Accidents

Thesis statement: The use of cellular telephones while driving is illegal in some states. Regardless, people continue to remove one or both hands from the wheel while driving in order to talk and/or text on their cell phones. This practice is associated with a number of negligent, reckless, dangerous, and deadly effects.
Using a cell phone to converse or text while driving is distracting to the driver.
Drivers are less likely to pay as close attention to their surroundings, driving conditions, and other cars when on their cell phones.
Drivers may be less likely to hear emergency vehicles while using a cell phone.
Drivers may drive faster than the speed limit due to failure to see speed limit postings.
Most drivers are taught to place both hands on the steering wheel while operating their car. Using a handheld device requires removing one or both hands from the wheel.
By not gripping the steering wheel with both hands, drivers have less control over their own car.
Letting go of the steering wheel or using only one hand to steer can lead to over-steering, jerky driving, weaving across lanes, and other reckless driving behaviors.
Reduced control of the steering wheel, combined with being distracted by a phone conversation or texting exchange can lead to an inability to react quickly when faced with other drivers' negligent or reckless driving.
Having less than full control of the steering wheel can make it difficult, if not impossible, to react quickly to difficulties with the automobile, such as tire blow-outs, gear shift problems, transmission issues, and so forth.
Over-steering, jerky driving, weaving across lanes, and other reckless driving behaviors can quickly become dangerous when faced with unexpected events, such as other drivers stopping short, accidents, lane closures, and rapid changes in weather conditions.
Any of these negligent, reckless, or dangerous effects of using a cell phone while driving has the potential to result in a collision with another automobile, median strips, animals, pedestrians, and bicyclists.
Collisions with other automobiles, median strips, animals, pedestrians, and bicyclists have the potential to be deadly for the driver/operator of the cell phone or any car, animal, or person he or she hits with his or her car.
Due to the potential for numerous negative effects from talking or texting on cell phones while driving, we all have an obligation to refrain from such cell phone usage, pull over while needing to make phone calls or text, or invest in hands-free devices.

Now develop a many causes lead to one effect outline.

Thesis statement: There is a common perception that the use of cell phones while driving is the primary cause of car accidents in this country. While the practice may certainly contribute to traffic accidents, there are many other causes that deserve equal attention.
People often run late, provoking them to drive faster than the speed limit to reach their destination.
Unexpected traffic jams disrupt drivers' schedules, requiring them to take unfamiliar routes or, once beyond the traffic, drive too fast to reach their destination.
Emergency situations not managed by the authorities (for example, a pregnant driver goes into premature labor) may lead to speeding and otherwise reckless driving maneuvers in order to reach a place of safety and help.
Many people live in the city and commute far into the outer parts of the suburbs to work or reside in the suburbs and drive over an hour to reach the city for work.
So much driving, particularly in poor weather conditions or in the dark, can lead to reduced attention span, a decreased ability to focus on surroundings, and even falling asleep behind the wheel.
Road construction is a common occurrence.
Oftentimes, such construction requires rerouting of traffic and detours.
Drivers unfamiliar with such detours, coupled with other factors mentioned earlier, such as hurry and fatigue, could result in hasty lane changes and other potentially dangerous driving choices.
People often engage in other distracting behaviors while driving, such as putting on makeup, shaving, tooth brushing, eating, drinking hot coffee, and so forth, impacting their ability to hold the steering wheel with both hands or react to the conditions around them.
People also listen to music in their cars and often at unreasonably loud volumes, compromising their ability to hear what is happening around them and respond appropriately.
Although talking and texting on cell phones may add to the incidents of traffic violations and accidents on our roads, there are numerous other causes of such incidents that should be examined more closely.

Outlining your essay before you begin writing it will help you to generate new ideas, focus your thoughts, clarify your arguments, and form a solid and appropriate thesis statement.

The best way to narrow the focus of a cause and effect essay is to take into account the complex nature of causes and effects and any causal chains. Then examine each cause and effect to make sure that all of the causal connections have been made. Finally, consider whether the topic fits best under a "many effects stem from one cause" approach or a "many causes lead to one effect" approach. This decision helps to further shape and form your ideas and narrow your focus.

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Do News Media Kill? How a Biased News Reality can Overshadow Real Societal Risks, The Case of Aviation and Road Traffic Accidents

Media coverage

Total road traffic

Fatal road accidents

Total air traffic

Fatal aviation accidents

Media Distortion Hypotheses

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Causes of Implicit Bias

How Implicit Bias Is Measured

Interpreting the Results

Link Between Implicit Bias and Discrimination

Effects of Implicit Bias

Implicit Bias in School

Implicit Bias In the Workplace

Implicit Bias in Healthcare Settings

Implicit Bias in Legal Settings

Strategies to Reduce the Impact of Implict Bias

A Word From Verywell

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The Structure of an Argumentative Essay

Creating an Introduction and Thesis

Acknowledging Opposing Ideas and Limits to Your Argument

Bias in Writing

The Use of I in Writing

Developing Sound Arguments

Fact and Opinion

Using Visual Elements to Strengthen Arguments

Writing an Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay Example

Key Takeaways

81 Considering Multiple Views & Avoiding Bias

Avoiding Bias

English Composition by Contributing Authors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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