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Cultural bias is when someone is biased due to his or her culture. The alleged problem of cultural bias is sometimes said to be central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. To counter perceived cultural bias, some practitioners of the fields have attempted to develop methods and theories to compensate for cultural bias. Some people claim cultural bias is a significant force in the natural sciences. For example, Luce Irigaray believes that physics has been shaped by patriarchal culture:

"Is e=mc² a sexed equation?...Perhaps it is. Let us make the hypothesis that it is insofar as it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us. What seems to me to indicate the possible sexed nature of the equation is not directly its uses by nuclear weapons, rather it is having privileged what goes the fastest"

However, such sentiments are rarely taken seriously outside a small sect of postmodernists. In fact, the quote above is often mocked by critics of postmodern ideology.

Some claim that cultural bias occurs when people of a culture make assumptions about conventions, including conventions of language, notation, proof and evidence. They are then accused of mistaking these assumptions for laws of logic or nature. However, most philosophers and scientists think that laws of logic and nature are universal^{who?citation needed}.

Numerous such biases are alleged to exist, concerning cultural norms for color, location of body parts, mate selection, concepts of justice, linguistic and logical validity, acceptability of evidence, and taboos. Most people who believe in the existence of cultural bias accept some but not necessarily all of these claims.

Cultural bias can also relate to a bias that a culture possesses. For instance, a bias against women could be held by a culture who degrades women.

This type of bias can be held by a group against an individual or by an individual against a group.

Examples

People who read English often assume that it is natural to scan a visual field from left to right and from top to bottom. In the United States it is universal for the "on" position of a toggle switch to be "up", whereas in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand it is "down." Also, in these countries, North is the top of a map, up is usually the larger quantity and better, as well. As another example, Japanese do not place an X in a check-box to indicate acceptance -- this indicates refusal.

These conventions are generally useful, as once one is used to light switches behaving a certain way one does not need to learn a per-light switch rule but just a general rule. Unfortunately, when people move between cultures or design something for a different group they often do not attend to which conventions remain and which change.

Linguistic and ethnic groups often do not share these notational assumptions. Notational and operative assumptions can damage control systems if the users are from a different culture than the designers. In safety-critical systems, responses to control panels and similar devices have to be valid in spite of the cultural biases of users.

Some of the more extreme advocates of claims regarding cultural bias believe that cultural bias makes it impossible to evaluate the truth claims of another culture.^who?

See also

• Cognitive bias
• Confirmation bias
• Embodied philosophy
• Ethnocentrism
• Goodness and value theory
• Notational bias
• Social learning
• Cultural pluralism

References

• Douglas, Mary, 1982. Cultural Bias, in: Douglas, M.: In the Active Voice, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; 183-254.

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• This page was last modified on 1 October 2008, at 02:15.

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