Are You Biased? Research Says Blog Comments & Search Engines Alter Perception

According to an article published in the journal Science entitled “Science, New Media, and the Public” by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers Dominique Brossard and Dietram A. Scheufele, blog comments and the autocomplete suggestions provided by search engines (such as Google Instant results) may produce a psychological bias that alter the way people interpret and make sense of scientific information on the Internet.

As mentioned by Brossard and Scheufele, non-traditional sources of information such as blogs, have become a primary source of information about science for people; with around fifty-percent of Americans relying on them instead of other online sources. Additionally, ninety-percent of Internet users in the United States depend on search engines to discover this information.

Considering these numbers and the importance of scientific knowledge to society, an obligation may fall upon online publishers to make sure that their readers are presented with accurate information, and are subject to as little bias as possible. It therefore may behoove publishers reporting on science to take the necessary actions to mitigate the bias their readers will face by disabling comments, providing an alternative means of discourse, or altering other site features.
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Learn About Social Media ROI from an Epic Twitter Debate

Below is a heated conversation that transpired between Dan Zarrella and Olivier Blanchard over an article written by Zarrella and published by the Harvard Business Review. Zarrella’s article, entitled “How to Calculate the Value of a Like” presents a formula for placing ROI value on a Facebook like. Blanchard claims the formula is too much an approximation and is not very useful. Blanchard explains gives an example how he to attribute ROI to a social media campaign, but Zarrella is concerned about data leakage. Both Blanchard and Zarrella are brilliant minds in the social media industry, but can’t seem to agree on this topic. I recommend reading this discussion, as one can learn a great deal about assessing the ROI of a social media campaign in the process.

See the Twitter debate bellow (presented with Storify):
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Bing it On! Data Says Google Wins The Bing Search Challenge

What is Bing It On?

Bing It On is a valiant marketing effort by Microsoft search engine Bing. The campaign claims that People Chose Bing Web Search Results Over Google Nearly 2 to 1 in Blind Comparison Tests and is fueled by BingItOn.com, a website where people could see for themselves in a blind comparison test (similar to the old Pepsi Challenge comparing Coca-Cola and Pepsi) which search results they prefer, Google’s or Bing’s. The website strips formatting of the SERPs (although it doesn’t do a great job of this as things like author pictures still appear for Google) so that users are unable to distinguish between which search engine is on the left or right. The user can search using a custom search term or use the search suggestions provided by Bing. Search engines switch sides randomly, and the user indicates which side’s results they prefer. They can also answer that it was a “draw” if they cannot choose a winner for that round.
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