Why is it important to avoid bias when conducting research?

Answer 1

Because when doing research your ultimately giving others information that they can learn from. If there is bias in the research then those who are learning from that research will only have one side to the story. For instance if you're doing research on world religions and you have a slant towards Christianity, then those who learn from that research will only see things from a "Christian's" point of view. Basically, with research you have to be aware of your audience. Or really, with any kind of writing.

Answer 2

Because it ends up like the news.

They come up with a story line then find evidence to support their pre-determined conclusion, and discard anything that challenges it.

If you allow your bias to influence your investigation, you will look for things that support your ideas and will tend to minimalize the evidence that goes against them.

It's very difficult, but you're supposed to approach your research with a purely open mind, and come up with the conclusion only after the facts are in. The best way to accomplish this is to assume your own biases are wrong and try to find evidence to prove that instead. Your own natural biases will then balanced them off.

It's like secondary smoke research. There's absolutely no evidence that casual everyday second hand smoke causes any health problems whatsoever (other than just being a stinky nuisance). And that's what several research programs discovered, including one by the World Health Organization and another by the American Lung Association. But that didn't fit their bias, so they discounted the findings and said "more research is needed". And when another researcher found the same results, they criticized the research techniques used (even though their own research found the exact same results!). That's because they already had their conclusion to begin with and now they are simply looking for evidence to support it.

Instead, they should have come to the conclusion that, while second hand smoke is not shown to have any measurable affects on health, it still causes general nuisance by its smell. That would have given them more credibility and silenced their critics. Instead, they continue to push their bias and make up conclusions where none exists, and simply out-shout their opponents.

The same thing is happening with global warming "research", which has already concluded that mankind is the singular greatest cause, even though plenty of legitimate science shows it to be exactly the opposite. And they are successfully out-shouting and putting down the critics of their foregone conclusions.

Answer 3

bias means you only show one side or opinion on a matter. if you avoid bias, the results are a better indication of what the test subjects really feel. avoiding bias makes your research right, not favoring one conclusion or another.

Answer 4

It is because you are trying to present facts, not your opinion. People want an unbiased view because it wouldn't help them learn if everything they read was biased. They should be allowed to make judgments on their own.

Answer 5

because research should be objective, you shouldn't try to persuade the reader to think like you.
Objective facts.