All 6 Uses

bias
in
What They Fought For - 1861-1865
(Auto-generated)

This sample of soldiers is, of course, biased toward the groups most likely to write letters or diaries and to save them for posterity to read.†
p. 14.7

biased = created a personal preference; or creates a tendency to move in a particular direction
In that respect, as in those of wealth, slaveholding, occupation, and education, the sample is biased toward those who had the largest stake in the Confederacy and were therefore most prone to have strong ideological convictions.†
p. 17.1
This bias cannot be helped, for it reflects the selectivity of the evidence available to the historian who seeks to get inside the minds of those men.†
p. 17.1 *

bias = a personal preference; or any tendency to move in a particular direction
But this bias may go a long way to neutralize the others.†
p. 17.2
My sample is biased toward genuine fighting soldiers.†
p. 17.7

biased = created a personal preference; or creates a tendency to move in a particular direction
This rather startling bias in the sample may have occurred because those who did the fighting came disproportionately from the same groups as the sample.†
p. 17.9

bias = a personal preference; or any tendency to move in a particular direction

Definitions:

(1) (bias)
a tendency to favor one side -- in people, a prejudice that affects fair judgment; more generally, any built-in lean to move or behave in a particular way (like a car that pulls right)
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Specialized meanings of bias include:
- statistics: any of several errors that distort results
- textiles: a line or fold that is diagonal relative to the sides or grain of the fabric
- electronics: a steady-state current that is forced through an electronic device