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biased

English translation: (fraudulently) inaccurate

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:biased
Selected answer:(fraudulently) inaccurate
Entered by: Ana Juliá

11:24 Apr 28, 2016
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Religion / About the book of Proverbs
English term or phrase: biased
Prov 20:22–25 These four proverbs teach that God, not people (20:22), is the judge and avenger, and that he detests all willful distortions of human judgment, as represented by ***biased*** scales (v. 23).

In what sense can scales be biased?
Ana Juliá
Spain
Local time: 12:12
(fraudulently) inaccurate
Explanation:
A baised scale is one that is faulty so that it doesn't weigh accurately. This will normally mean that the seller has tampered with the scale so that it indicates a higher weight than the real weight, so what is weighed actually weighs less than the scale indicates. This is a classic way of defrauding the customer. The scale is biased in favour of the seller.

It could mean that the scale is out of balance; technically, not correctly tared (i.e. the zero value is not accurate).

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Note added at 14 mins (2016-04-28 11:39:26 GMT)
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Sorry; typo at the start: "baised" should be "biased".

It doesn't have to be fraudulent, though in commercial contexts (and metaphorically in legal contexts) a biased scale is one designed to favour one of the parties against the other. A scale can be biased simply because it's faulty:

"Bias: How can measurement be valid?
What if you find out that you always weight two pounds less on your scale at home than the one in the gym. The latter is one of the expensive balance models, and the gym attendants assert that it is accurate. Is your scale at home biased? It’s easy to imagine that it could be so without your suspecting it. Probably most home scales are biased in this direction!"
https://about.illinoisstate.edu/ktschne/Documents/CoursePack...

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Note added at 17 mins (2016-04-28 11:42:07 GMT)
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I suppose that even in this case it could be deliberate; the people marketing home scales could have biased them to make customers think they weigh a bit less than they really do, and thus sell more scales!
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 12:12
Grading comment
Thank you
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +7(fraudulently) inaccurate
Charles Davis
2prejudiced criteria
Jonathan MacKerron


  

Answers


7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
(fraudulently) inaccurate


Explanation:
A baised scale is one that is faulty so that it doesn't weigh accurately. This will normally mean that the seller has tampered with the scale so that it indicates a higher weight than the real weight, so what is weighed actually weighs less than the scale indicates. This is a classic way of defrauding the customer. The scale is biased in favour of the seller.

It could mean that the scale is out of balance; technically, not correctly tared (i.e. the zero value is not accurate).

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 mins (2016-04-28 11:39:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry; typo at the start: "baised" should be "biased".

It doesn't have to be fraudulent, though in commercial contexts (and metaphorically in legal contexts) a biased scale is one designed to favour one of the parties against the other. A scale can be biased simply because it's faulty:

"Bias: How can measurement be valid?
What if you find out that you always weight two pounds less on your scale at home than the one in the gym. The latter is one of the expensive balance models, and the gym attendants assert that it is accurate. Is your scale at home biased? It’s easy to imagine that it could be so without your suspecting it. Probably most home scales are biased in this direction!"
https://about.illinoisstate.edu/ktschne/Documents/CoursePack...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 17 mins (2016-04-28 11:42:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I suppose that even in this case it could be deliberate; the people marketing home scales could have biased them to make customers think they weigh a bit less than they really do, and thus sell more scales!

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 12:12
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 172
Grading comment
Thank you

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Veronika McLaren
8 mins
  -> Thanks, Veronika :)
agree  Yasutomo Kanazawa: Well explained and easy to understand. God's judgment will never be biased, but human judgment may become biased from time to time.
10 mins
  -> Exactly so. Thank you, Yasutomo-san!
agree  Björn Vrooman: I'd invite Ana to read the Politics section of five American news organizations for about half an hour each. It is the surest way to understand what "biased" means (sorry, I couldn't help it).
37 mins
  -> Very true! And it's not just Fox. To be fair, it's not just America either. Thanks, Björn :)
agree  katsy
5 hrs
  -> Thanks, katsy :)
agree  Daryo: similar to using loaded dice
11 hrs
  -> That's right: an unequal distribution of weight. Thanks, Daryo!
agree  acetran
2 days 23 hrs
  -> Thanks, acetran!
agree  Phong Le
3 days 3 hrs
  -> Thanks, Phong Le :)
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
prejudiced criteria


Explanation:
is I think the deep structure here, i.e. God applies different criteria to what are "distortions in judgment" than does man

Jonathan MacKerron
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 24
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