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Cultural bias is a bias effected by one's culture. The alleged problem of cultural bias is sometimes considered central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. To counter perceived cultural bias, some practitioners of the aforementioned 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.

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 ^[1].

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.

Contents 1 Examples 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References

[edit] 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 typical 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 change control systems if the users implement, from a different culture than the designers, funnel interpretations from their original world view. Safety-critical systems, according to Seidner (pp. 5-7), become responses to threats of control. Through the emergence of majority and minority categories in society, cultural biases ensue.

[edit] See also

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

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Alan Sokal in his video taped lecture in Stockholm for the Swedish Humanist Association, video uploaded May 27, 2009 at Viddler, says quoting the philosopher Susan Haack that science is like a crossword, and thus requires mutual and logical supplement between different sciences like chemistry and biology, and that there is a need for "accurate knowledge of world" and the science is an "actual knowledge of factual matters"

[edit] References

• Douglas, Mary (1982). "Cultural Bias," in: Douglas, M.: In the Active Voice, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; 183-254.
• Seidner, Stanley S.(1982). Ethnicity, Language, and Power from a Psycholinguistic Perspective. Bruxelles: Centre de recherche sur le pluralinguisme.