Neutral Question Essay

1746 Words4 Pages

The claim the title presents seems to be an obvious one when examined briefly. However, when examining the title closely the language used must be considered, specifically, the key word, “neutral”. A neutral question is an unbiased question that does not imply a specific answer, limits thinking, or guides into a predestined train of thought. When examined from this view, it can be said that all questions are asked with a purpose and demand an answer limited to a finite number, and therefore lose their neutrality. However, a neutral question can also be an objective question that is answered clearly with no deviation and is disengaged from the answer given to it. It can be a question based on an examination of facts where only one answer is possible, and since the presence of bias depends on the existence of multiple views, it can be said that …show more content…

Bias stems from people’s nature to judge and have their own opinions towards a topic. Sometimes historians, and people in general, are faced with conformation bias, in which they are more prone to focus on one set of events and disregard the others. For example, once I went to a football game where my favorite team was playing and they won the game. When my mother asked me how the game went, and I told her how my team won. I may choose to ignore the other team’s loss or the details of their play. Even if I do not consciously decide to be subjective in my account of the game, my brain naturally would remember certain memories with a higher degree of clarity or it could obstruct certain events. All of these factors would lead me to favor one team, and since the question led me to prefer one side, it is no longer neutral. However, getting different accounts of the same event from people with diverse opinions can reduce bias. Also, technology, mainly phones, can be used to reserve specific events by recording to be examined

Open Document