Unfounded Bias Research Articles

Television series, identity of contemporary Muslim women and socio-cultural contestations: the case of Arewa 24’s ‘Mata A Yau’ (contemporary women)

ABSTRACT This study delves into the social and cultural challenges Muslim women face in the TV series Mata A Yau, which airs on Arewa 24, a Hausa-language channel catering to Hausa-speaking audiences in Northern Nigeria. The show premiered in August 2023, sparking debates about the media’s portrayal of contemporary Muslim women and their identity. The study employed sociocultural theory, mixed methods of interviews, and focus group discussions to analyse the program and uncover the root causes of these cultural and social disputes. The findings reveal that Islamic popular culture often intersects with religious and cultural practices, leading to debates about women’s identity, particularly within the context of media and Islamic popular culture. The study uncovers society’s unfounded biases and unjustified insults and condemnation against a particular gender as a result of hasty judgments or responding to contentious or religious issues without fully understanding the topic. The conflicts experienced by Muslim women within the series provide a valuable opportunity to delve into the complexities of contemporary Muslim women’s identity.

Policies Affecting Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorder

Policies Affecting Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorder

The Unfounded Bias Against Autonomous Weapons Systems

Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) have not gained a good reputation in the past. This attitude is odd if we look at the discussion of other – usually highly anticipated – AI-technologies, like autonomous vehicles (AVs); whereby even though these machines evoke very similar ethical issues, philosophers’ attitudes towards them are constructive. In this article, I try to prove that there is an unjust bias against AWS because almost every argument against them is effective against AVs too. I start with the definition of “AWS.” Then, I arrange my arguments by the Just War Theory (JWT), covering jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum problems. Meanwhile, I draw attention to similar problems against other AI-technologies outside the JWT framework. Finally, I address an exception, as addressed by Duncan Purves, Ryan Jenkins and Bradley Strawser, who realized the unjustified double standard, and deliberately tried to construct a special argument which rules out only AWS.

Major Barbara Stimson: A Historical Perspective on the American Board of Surgery Through the Accomplishments of the First Woman to Achieve Board Certification.

: Dr. Barbara Bartlett Stimson, AB, MD, MedScD, FACS (1898-1986) was a pioneering orthopedic surgeon from a prominent American family who, in 1940, became the first woman certified by the American Board of Surgery (ABS, certificate number 860). It would be another 7 years and approximately 2500 candidates before the next female surgeon would be certified. A member of the third class to admit women to Columbia Medical School and the second female surgical resident to complete training at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Dr. Stimson was a confident and exceptionally accomplished trailblazer for women in surgery. In this biographical sketch based upon documents from the ABS, and the archives of Vassar College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Dr. Stimson's motivations, attitudes, and unique accomplishments emerge as testimony to the exceptional career of this driven, self-possessed woman. Stimson was undaunted by the sex-based conventions of her time, and achieved a notable career as a surgeon in the profession she loved; first honing her skills at a busy urban fracture service in New York, then serving with distinction in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II, and finally returning to the states to become a respected leader in her field. Her life story and unprecedented ABS certification affirm her conviction that proven skill and ability can be used as a means of overcoming unfounded biases, and helped pave the way for future generations of board certified female surgeons in the United States.

Chloe's Law: A Powerful Legislative Movement Challenging a Core Ethical Norm of Genetic Testing.

Since the early 1970s, the ethical norm governing counselors involved in testing and screening for genetic conditions related to reproduction has been strict neutrality. Counseling about reproductive genetics was to be patient centered but nondirective. Many advocates for people with Down syndrome believe that high abortion rates following a diagnosis of this condition show an unfounded bias against those with Down syndrome. These advocates have succeeded in enacting federal and state legislation that requires women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome to receive positive information about the condition, thereby ending the nominal goal of value-neutral counseling and setting the stage for further normative shifts in clinical reproductive genetics as counseling expands because of cell-free testing.

STRATEGIC PARTY CHOICES IN EMERGENT DEMOCRACIES: TAIWAN'S 2008 LEGISLATIVE ELECTION

Parties instrumentally shape or realign electoral support in competitive elections to underpin a vigorous party system. Assessing whether parties are strategic versus ignorant, then, is essential to the viability of the parties and particularly relevant in emergent democracies to eliminate unfounded biases against ignorant parties. The dramatic, lopsided results of Taiwan's 2008 legislative elections following electoral reform are particular useful in this regard: they suggest that the Kuomintang's Pan Blue coalition was strategic while the Democratic Progressive Party's Pan Green coalition failed to be strategic. We contradict this, using simulated electoral results and a strategic interaction model. This paper makes three contributions: first, it adds to a limited literature that considers parties influence, particularly parties’ strategic actions. Party-centric explanations are rare so that when results are highly disproportionate, the question of whether party choices are strategic versus ignorant adds an important dimension to clarifying how the party realigns electoral support or influences political development. Second, through multiple methodologies – simulated electoral results, a game-theory strategic interaction model, and reports on-the-ground in Taiwan – the results show that parties’ expectation of the other camp's strategy informed party choices, i.e., parties were strategic. Third, in revealing how parties were strategic, the paper reveals the basis of continued vitality of parties in Taiwan and other emergent democracies to broaden treatments in assessing party viability.

Rethinking Gender Politics in Laboratories and Neuroscience Research: The Case of Spatial Abilities in Math Performance

What does it mean to practice socially responsible science on controversial issues? In a fresh turn focussing on the neuroscientists’ responsibility in producing knowledge about politically charged subjects, Chalfin et al. (Am J Bioethics 8(1):1–2, 2008) caution neuroscientists to be careful about how they present their findings lest their results be used to support unfounded biases, social stereotypes and prejudices. Weisberg et al. (J Cogn Neurosci 20(3):470–477, 2008) discuss the allure of neuroscience explanations and demonstrate how laypersons easily accept dubious claims as long as (even non-relevant) neuroscientific descriptions are provided. Fine (2010) exposes the use of scientific evidence in propagating outdated gender myths by popular writers and discusses the infiltration of these prejudices into popular belief, folk culture and lifestyle. This paper discusses ways in which the ‘neuroscience of gender difference’ itself inadvertently contributes to normalising socially constructed theories about sex difference in cognitive performance. This unpremeditated effect has evident implications on the structuring of society because gender relations cut across social, political and economic boundaries. We present a theoretical reflection of factors that could interact with the scientists’ attempted objective evaluation of the subject, the methods and some principle problems, and we engage a science studies approach as our methodological tool. Our object of critique is drawn from the research on spatial abilities that articulate the dissention pertaining to sex differences in intellectual capacity.

Tracking bias against the selection of female expatriates: Implications and opportunities for business education

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate early formation and presence of an unfounded bias against female expatriate selection. Overall results found that freshmen exhibited less bias against female expatriate assignment viability than MBA students, and females were less biased than males. However, freshman males exhibited greater bias against females in expatriate assignments than did freshman females, and they did not differ significantly in their perceptions from their male MBA counterparts. Our results suggest that the unfounded bias against female expatriate selection can exist very early, particularly among male students, presenting an important educational challenge and opportunity for business educators. Recommendations are made for improving business education to counter bias formation and dispel negative stereotypes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Richard II in Thomas Walsingham's Chronicles

King Richard II of England (1377-99) has enjoyed neither a happy nor a wholesome posthumous reputation. The traditional view of his character and government is largely hostile, if not contemptuous.' In recent years, however, historians have begun to question this view. They have detected in the work of contemporary chroniclers, especially Lancastrian authors, the genesis of an unfriendly and unfounded bias against the king. Because of their enormous importance and influence, the many chronicles of St. Albans abbey, above all those by Thomas Walsingham, have been singled out for particular blame.2