by S.S. McDaniel

Created on: July 21, 2009

When a person reads an article, he or she is naturally inclined to read it through a filter of their own thoughts and experiences. As such, a person who is, for example, strongly anti-abortion will not be able to read a pro-choice article without putting a negative filter over it. This person reading this article may take into account the very valid health concerns and psychological issues as well as the encouragement to reconsider before aborting, but will ultimately see the article as pro-abortion due to their own thoughts.

Would ratings by such a person be a legitimate measure of the skill of the writer? Unlikely. No matter how much the reader resolves to rate the article as the sum of the writer's skill and their facts, it is hard to ignore that the reader ultimately disagrees with the message.

By only allowing people to rate an article that, at heart, agrees with their own opinion, Helium has removed as much of the filtering as possible. People rating someone who agrees with them are more likely to rate the piece based on grammar, spelling, word usage, and fluidity of the piece. All writers should hope that their ratings are given by people with as little bias, people who are saying "You need to use more commas" instead of "That's stupid."

Would this bias really matter if the judge was only rating articles they disagreed with? It is difficult to tell. It is feasible that a person may chose a lesser article as "better" for something they disagree with to try to discredit the opposing side.

As I write this article, thinking about the issues raised above, I read another article and catch myself nearly skipping over it: "I disagree!" part of my brain is shouting. Yet, I force myself to read through it and really assess why I do not like the article: I disagree. The author has written it well, presented their points logically and in good style and surely believes what they have written. Who am I to determine that the subject matter voids the hard work and intelligence?

Can any of us honestly say we have not done the exact same thing? Read the first paragraph or two of an article, or skimmed it, coming to the conclusion that it is not good, not because the article isn't well written, but because we disagree with the point of the article. It does not make us bad judges or bad people, but simply people. Whether we will it or no, whether we even recognize it, a bias does exist.

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