Unintended Bias Overview

How have the histories of exclusion in science become embedded into the field, including the metaphors, languages, and scientific practices? How does a field’s choice of language and metaphor affect the scientific process? The language and metaphors used in a field, or even the instruments developed, can carry with it unintended biases and assumptions. These choices can impact public uptake of findings, influence applications of research, and foreclose potentially rich lines of inquiry. Participants will examine the language used in their own field to identify key linguistic signifiers that may be limiting the possibilities of scientific inquiry and learn how shifts to contrasting language and concepts have led to new scientific discoveries and produced more equity in the field.

Module participants will:

• Describe how language can be gendered, ableist and/or racialized
• Identify examples of gendered, racialized or ableist language in their field.
• Draw conclusions about the ways that culture influences science and science influences culture.
• Identify ways that new metaphors and language have expanded scientific research

Read the following headline and quotations and reflect on what cultural tropes they invoke through the use of metaphor:

• "Biological Invaders Sweep In”
• “Aliens Reeking Havoc: The Invasion of the Woodland soil Snatchers”
• “Monogamy is the most natural form of reproduction for the human species”
• “Hard sciences vs. Soft sciences”

The language of science is often imbued with gendered, racialized, ableist, heterocentrist, and xenophobic rhetoric. This unit will help you to see how this is present in your own field so that you can move beyond the limitations of existing metaphors.