The Myth of the Unbiased Writer

You are biased. Admit it, and you'll be on your way to better writing.

You might’ve heard a line something like “journalists are unbiased.” That’s BS. Nobody is unbiased. But all writers, regardless of genre, style or motivation, must seek to understand and admit their biases if they wish to write credibly.

Your biases will creep into your writing. If you intend it to happen—if you’re writing an opinion piece or your goal is purely persuasion—then human nature has prepared you well for the task. But to write credible fact-driven nonfiction, you’ll want to minimize the effect of your biases, so as to create higher-quality, more effective stories as part of a consistent pattern of trusted writing.

Admitting your biases is among the hardest things a writer must do, and it’s a vital trait we can learn.

In this post, I’ll summarize the science of human bias — the subconscious ways your brain messes with your reality, then explain how to keep it out of your writing. Recognizing and dealing with our biases is part of the broader, vital writing trait of intellectual humility, but biases are a distinct subset.

First, let’s explore how biases work in your brain, without you even knowing it…

Image: Jack_the_sparow/Shutterstock. Used under the writer’s license.

Your brain makes decisions easy

Human minds pack numerous types of cognitive biases, ingrained thought processes that help us make quick decisions and move forward with confidence. From an evolutionary perspective, it’s a good system. But when a task calls for thoughtfulness, cognitive biases can be counterproductive.

Our minds are quick to judge, to reach conclusions based on limited information. And limited information is a rampant human problem. One type of cognitive bias, which I wrote about recently, is called the illusion of information adequacy. Even with limited information, we form viewpoints quickly, and with great confidence. Simplified, it goes like this:

Say you get impatient and honk at a driver stopped in front of you. Then you realize they’re waiting for someone to cross the street. You didn’t fully consider why the driver might be stopped; you reacted without key information. Or, as we non-scientists put it: You went off half-cocked.

Other cognitive biases run much deeper. Thanks to confirmation bias, once we form an opinion or make a decision, our brains subconsciously shut out competing facts and information. We don’t realize it’s happening, but we pay attention to stuff that supports our view, and we don’t even hear the stuff that challenges it. The more confident a person is in their views, the stronger this bias becomes, studies have found.

Our biases work in concert with our lousy memories. Don’t get me started — I can’t even remember all the ways we form false memories and distorted recollections, then base our opinions and decisions on stuff that never happened.

How to overcome your biases

You can overcome your biases. You must. Here’s how: