DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - China peace index ranks 80th, while US 85th

**xqdrocherz** · 08-29-2012, 10:09 AM

How is that a bias ? It's just its definition.
Bias comes in exactly when you introduce concepts such as 'justification' which is always subjective. Whether a war is justified or not, even if there were some objective values to measure this against, it makes no difference in the observation that there is an absence of peace.

Definitions can also be bias. How to define a peaceful nation defined by the luxuries of society and freedom of expression. Would you say that definition is bias? If you say yes, then any result would be bias. Right? The same can be said of this index. For example, simply using the number of wars or then umber of people killed does not mean it is less peaceful than a country that has not beein in wars. Additionally, the weighted average of the index per the number of parts also show a bias. If we change the weighted average among the parts, then the numbers would change where certain countries will go down and certain countries will go up in the index. That is the definition of bias.

In the relative ranking of countries both statements are true. It's not a dichotomy. Techniclly, they are both true and false.

08-29-2012, 10:09 AM	#23
xqdrocherz Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 377 Senior Member	How is that a bias ? It's just its definition. Bias comes in exactly when you introduce concepts such as 'justification' which is always subjective. Whether a war is justified or not, even if there were some objective values to measure this against, it makes no difference in the observation that there is an absence of peace. Definitions can also be bias. How to define a peaceful nation defined by the luxuries of society and freedom of expression. Would you say that definition is bias? If you say yes, then any result would be bias. Right? The same can be said of this index. For example, simply using the number of wars or then umber of people killed does not mean it is less peaceful than a country that has not beein in wars. Additionally, the weighted average of the index per the number of parts also show a bias. If we change the weighted average among the parts, then the numbers would change where certain countries will go down and certain countries will go up in the index. That is the definition of bias. In the relative ranking of countries both statements are true. It's not a dichotomy. Techniclly, they are both true and false.
	Quote