June 11: Objectivity?

Objectivity and Perspective

Today in STEM in Society, we discussed objectivity and perspective in science. A subjective perspective can lead to the incorrect interpretation of an experiment. In class, we used a video to demonstrate human biases.

Objective Description of the Video

In the video, a Pitbull licks a small bunny. Here is the link to the video: https://utk.instructuremedia.com/embed/5dc6395e-cff0-4bcf-8fd2-33f76d7c21dc

Also, here's a picture from the video:


I interpreted the video as the Pitbull preparing to eat the bunny. The bunny seems very scared as it wipes off the Pitbull's spit. The Pitbull cannot resist the temptation of eating the bunny and licks it to prepare its meal. 

I think my previous knowledge of Pitbulls being very aggressive effected my opinion on this topic.

To remove this bias, I could stop immediately thinking of the Pitbull as a predator and view the video more objectively.

After rewatching the video, I can understand how this could be a grooming exchange between the two. The Pitbull does not seem as aggressive as it did initially.


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