Technical jargon: What does bias mean?

In the age of surveys, tests and market research, whether scientifically sound or nonsense, whether designed as an online or telephone survey or an evaluation of likes, clicks and shares, bias is everywhere. And there are countless of them: Belief bias (tendency to draw credible conclusions), confirmation bias (fulfilling one's own expectations) or gender bias (role stereotypes) are probably the most common. The word first reached the ears of the masses last fall when Donald Trump used it inflationarily to accuse and insult his opponents. The Duden dictionary defines the word as "distortion of the result of a representative survey caused by incorrect research methods (e.g. leading questions)" in market research. Trump succinctly called the people he accused of bias liars who would use them to create fake news, thus masterfully deflecting attention from his bias. The rest is history, which still keeps the world in suspense today. The word spread like wildfire through management - it is pronounced "bai äs", which is unfortunately not short for "Goodbye Asshole". So anyone who is asked about bias in their strategy derivations or survey results during presentations should simply remember: you can not only win pitches despite bias, you can also become president.*Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He created the "Vom Fach" section in NZZ FOLIO and was in charge of it for many years. He presents and decodes words and terms from the marketing sector.