e.g., Sun rises from the east and sets from the west and autumn comes after summer. This way of drawing the distinction makes “The earth revolves around the sun” an opinion – or at least, not a fact – since no one directly observes it happening (not even astronauts!). The Education Oasis site announces that “An opinion expresses someone’s belief ... about something.” So if I believe that there’s beer in my refrigerator, is that just an opinion? For example, it is a fact that broccoli is good for you (you can look this up in books about healthy diets). For example, most people would say that it’s true that genocide is wrong, and there may or may not be beer in my refrigerator. So while the subjective/objective distinction might be useful in explaining the fact/opinion distinction, adopting this approach would require us to revise our common thinking about facts and opinions. In order to avoid the obstacles that result from bias and to restore objective, impartial and critical thinking skills, a person should self reflect and strive to identify any personal biases that they may have. Fact applies to something that can be verified or proved to be true. Facts explain what happened. A fact is an incontrovertible (undeniable, existent) thing. Philosophers might be tempted to draw this contrast by identifying facts as states of affairs – occurrences that are there in the world regardless of what anyone may think about them – and identifying opinions as beliefs (or some other mental state) about states of affairs. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Adelphi with a double masters degree in both Nursing Education and Nursing Administration and immediately began the PhD in nursing coursework at the same university. That said, they are still somewhat revisionist: They do not fully capture everyday usage (since everyday usage is messy and confused), but instead serve to refine that usage. Given this definition, all beliefs (qua beliefs) are subjective, because beliefs depend on minds. Facts are the bases of evidence and scientific theories. between the two, however – the rule that tells us how to assign statements to one category or the other – they often get tongue-tied. o A statement of opinion is one whose content is either subjective or else not well supported by the available evidence. All people, therefore, should do stress management techniques on a daily basis. Opinions are always subjective. Others say that factual statements are “concrete” rather than “abstract”, but that answer would render all mathematical statements non-factual, since mathematics involves abstract concepts (e.g. Moreover, there is a strong commonsense intuition that genocide would be wrong whether anyone believes it’s wrong, suggesting that the claim is objective, not subjective. It also jumbles together occurrences (what we earlier called “states of affairs”), statements about occurrences, and the evidence for those statements. Let’s consider three of those other distinctions. Acknowledging the fact that few, if any things, are ALWAYS true or ALWAYS false; therefore, stereotypes that claim that ALL people or NO people are rarely if ever true. But it’s controversial whether all normative claims are matters of opinion. Facts may alter anybody’s opinion, but vice versa is not possible. This bias is characterized with a person's inclination to blindly reject the thoughts, views, and perspectives of another person, including an author of a text, because of some characteristic or trait of that person even though that person's traits and characteristics have little or nothing to do with the lack of expertise that a person thinks that they have. A fact is a statement of truth that can be verified and is able to be proven as true. they’ll say that the A statements are facts and the B statements are opinions. A fact is a thing that can be proven as true by someone else. It is clear and obvious that only stupid and ignorant people smoke cigarettes. Research has indicated that a person's pulse rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate increase when the person is under stress. Confirmation bias: This bias, simply stated, is a person's predilection and tendency to support, favor and accept thoughts and things that are consistent and congruent with their preexisting thoughts, beliefs, and opinions. This truth can test through observation, experimentation, experience or some other means. It is also essential to note that facts can sometimes be affected by opinions and biases, even in some academic and research fields. The tendency for groupthink occurs as a part of human nature that strives for belonging and harmony and that also strives to avoid aloneness and conflict. Fact vs. Opinion. For among the beliefs that people have about the world, there are some that people tend to put in the “fact” column and some that they tend to put in the “opinion” column. She worked as a registered nurse in the critical care area of a local community hospital and, at this time, she was committed to become a nursing educator. They are exactly defined and can be measured. In addition to these differences between a fact and an opinion, facts are objective and opinions are subjective; facts are consistently repeatable in terms of their measurement and observation with empirical senses, and, opinions are not repeatable in terms of their measurement and observation with empirical senses. A research study will NOT prove that the hypothesis is true or false. A hypothesis: An educated guess about the relationship of variables in a research study. Biases, at times, can be helpful in terms of a person's judgment and decision making and, at other times, a bias can be detrimental and not helpful; biases can lead to poor judgment, poor reasoning skills, and faulty decision making. Opinions are assertions people make about their beliefs and or judgments. Human nature tends to reject new thoughts and new things; human beings tend to strive to maintain the status quo even when valid and reliable evidence suggests otherwise. A bias: A bias, simply defined, is the tendency of a human being to have a positive tendency, inclination or proclivity for something or a negative tendency against something. Moral debates are practical – they’re debates about what to do – and they concern our values: things that matter to us. All children are addicted to video games and their devices. Facts are strong statements and opinions can be biased statements. Other words that describe a bias are a predilection, an inclination, a preference, and a prejudgment for or against something. Let me offer a conjecture: the fact/opinion distinction is ambiguous, and in trying to explain it, people typically conflate it with other distinctions in the neighbourhood. Author stereotyping can be recognized by: PLEASE NOTE: The contents of this website are for informational purposes only. It’s a way of diminishing a claim, reducing it to a mere matter of taste which lies beyond dispute. Facts are also general, and they do not change as per region, cast, culture, religion, etc. Stereotyping can be even more detrimental than biases in terms of judgments and decision making. “Opinion: statement of belief or feeling. In other words, an opinion can be a fact when it is accurate, true, and verifiable with evidence. I therefore propose that we abandon the ambiguous fact/opinion distinction, and especially the dismissive retort “That’s just your opinion.” We should focus instead on whether people can offer good reasons for the claims they make – reasons that might compel us to share their views. Here are the second and third results from my quick internet search, from an “Education Oasis” and “Enchanted Learning” website, respectively: “A fact is a statement that can be proven true.”, “An opinion expresses someone’s belief, feeling, view, idea, or judgment about something or someone.”. Fact depends on observation or research while opinion based on assumption. Please add difference.wiki to your ad blocking whitelist or disable your adblocking software. Either we send troops to Syria or we don’t. A null hypothesis: A null hypothesis is accepted when the research does not accept or refute the research hypothesis. Again, human nature plays into a person's use of confirmation bias. If everyday observers are confused about the distinction, “experts” fare little better. Biases can be detrimental and not helpful to judgment and sound decision making; biases can lead to poor judgment, poor reasoning skills, and faulty decision making because they may close the person's mind off to alternative ideas, truths, and opinions. It shows one’s feelings about a subject. Facts. Identifying the fact that an author has omitted facts that could detract from the author's personal biases and opinions, Identifying the fact that the author has included only facts and statements that support the author's point of view and that the author has failed to include some facts and opinions that are contrary to the author's personal biases, Identifying the authors' strong and emotionally powerful words to support the author's opinions with little or no neutral and emotionless words, Identifying the author's stereotypical statements as the author puts forward in the reading passage and determining that these statements are not true. Something is subjective insofar as it is mind-dependent, objective insofar as it is mind-independent. The halo effect bias: This bias is characterized with a person's inclination to blindly accept the thoughts, views, and perspectives of another person, including an author of a text, because of some characteristic or trait of that person even though that person's traits and characteristics have little or nothing to do with the perceived expertise that a person thinks that they have. If this is “Critical Thinking”, I’d hate to see what Sloppy Thinking looks like. In other words, a valid opinion is a valid one when the perspective, the point of view, the personal beliefs, and/or personal feelings are based on facts and when the data and information that this opinion is based on is accurate, true, and verifiable with evidence. Facts are always objective and neutral. Second, consider the subjective/objective distinction. A fact: A fact is a truth. In addition to these differences between a fact and an opinion, facts are objective and opinions are subjective; facts are consistently repeatable in terms of their measurement and observation with empirical senses and opinions are not repeatable in terms of their measurement and observation with empirical senses. The Fact: The fact in the above statement is "Cigarette smoking causes bodily and health problems such as lung cancer and premature infants" and the opinion in the above statement is "It is clear and obvious that only stupid and ignorant people smoke cigarettes.". The same is true for “God exists” – not an opinion, on this schema, but a factual claim (maybe true, maybe false). Hence, due to individual differences, every person’s opinion on a particular matter is also different. Overconfidence bias is manifested when a person is biased towards their own perspective and view because they believe that they and they alone are the expert. The Opinion: The opinion statement, in contrast to the factual statement in the reading passage above, is not verifiable and not able to be proven true with empirical evidence and the use of our empirical senses. Based on the limitations of a hypothesis, research does not conclude with a theory or facts. The five senses are vision, hearing, smelling, which is referred to as the olfactory sense, tasting, which is referred to as the gustatory sense, and the sense of touch, which is the tactile sense. In particular, the statement that “God created the earth” will need to move over to the “fact” column, since whether God created the earth is an objective matter – it happened (or not) independently of whether we believe it happened. Some of the most commonly occurring stereotypes relating to people are based on: The most dangerous, and often illegal, a consequence of stereotyping is discrimination and inappropriate responses to and actions against an innocent person as the result of their discrimination.