Facts vs Fiction vs Bias

In the world of uncertainty that we are living today, data is being thrown at us on an hourly basis. This may be from news channels, certified sources, Twitter, and other social media channels. 

So what do we do when we feel like analysis paralysis is setting in? How do we overcome the fear and anxiety that we are feeling? 

Fear is something that is real and most of us see the severity of the pandemic. We see and hear the frustration from our families, friends, colleagues, former co-workers and everyone else on social media. 

I wanted to cover the importance of differentiating data from fact, fiction, and bias. 

We all know that facts are the truth. Empirical truths like 2+2 = 4 or other science experimented truths.

Fiction is the imagination! Like my favorite fantasy space movie, Star Wars. We think its great and cool and wish we were part of it, like being part of the Rebellion and fighting for justice.

Biases on the other hand are harder to distinguish, specifically unconscious biases such as confirmation bias. We look for data to back us up because we want to be right. 

In the world of data analysis, understanding the difference between these three is important. When we are logging into any of our social media platforms and numbers are being shown to us about the latest COVID-19 infections, we need to differentiate the data into fact vs fiction vs bias.

Our responsibility in any data analysis, and even more so in data that we may not be experts in, is to take a step back and ask ourselves:

• Where is this data sourced from?

• How was the data collected?

• What biases could be part of that data?

• What biases am I bringing to the analysis?

Hope you are all staying safe and healthy.