[Sigia-l] conflict of interest (was: usability testing)

[Bruce Melendy]

Ziya wrote: "Conflict of interest *is* bias."

I disagree with this. A conflict of interest is having two or more
interests that are in conflict with each other. Eg, your consulting
firm's and your client's interests, say. Whether you are biased toward
either, or biased toward a particular methodology etc or another, is a
separate issue. You could have just a single, overriding interest and
no conflict whatsoever and still be biased - in fact I'd go so far as
to say that interest = bias. And who doesn't have at least one
interest?

There's a popular misconception that a conflict of interest somehow
suggests inherent corruption - also not true. You could be a
politician in charge of regulating an industry in which you have a
substantial financial interest. While it's possible that you could be
scrupulously fair in your regulatory role, the very model of
integrity, you would still have a conflict of interest. It doesn't
imply an ulterior motive; it simply describes a situation that's
structured in such a way as to engineer a less-than-optimal decision
making process.

Everyone's biased in one way or another, but some have better reasons
for their biases than others.

Bruce


Bruce Melendy
bruce.melendy at gmail.com