Editorial Bias

               In the article, Why Should Animal Testing be Banned, by Shashank Nakate, the author seems very bias towards people who are in agreement for animal testing.  Nakate is a feels strongly against animal testing and believes it should be stopped immediately.   She shows many different types of bias throughout her editorial some I picked up on include: essentialism, availability cascade and the ostrich effect. 

                Initially, essentialism is demonstrated throughout the editorial.  Shashank Nakate categorizes people according to their essential nature.  If you think animal testing is good because otherwise humans would get hurt, she would say you are wrong:   “The results obtained from animal testing are used to check whether a particular medicine or cosmetic product would have any side-effects on human beings.”  For example, if someone was to use a medicine or cosmetic product that was tested on an animal you would be categorized as a bad person.  Though this may not be true, or you may not even had known you are using a product that has been tested on an animal, you will be placed in a group of oblivious selfish people.  The author shows essentialism in this point about products being animal tested.

                Subsequently, availability cascade pops up in this article a couple of times. Availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse.  Over the course of the editorial Shashank repetitively says how awful animal testing is and gives reasons to back up her beliefs:  “The practice of animal testing should be banned, considering that it is harmful from the ethical, environmental as well as the economical point of view.”  After saying that animal testing should be banned many times the reader starts to believe the authors opinion.  The author not only says that animal testing should be banned directly but also in virtually every sentence there is a point against this horrible act.  Availability cascade really helped the author to get her point across to the reader.

                Additionally, the ostrich effect was seen throughout the editorial.  The ostrich effect means that you ignore an obvious (negative) situation.  Nakate is very bias and eliminated the fact that people have other opinions on the subject.  She does not consider other’s point of view.  Other people may believe that animal testing is a good thing, for it decreases the number of humans that are hurt from unsafe products.  Shashank may use the ostrich effect and not even know it.

                By and large, in the article, Why Animal Testing Should be Banned, by Shashank Nakate, the author shows bias to people in agreement with animal testing.  Nakate is totally against animal testing and wants it to disappear.  Some major forms of bias that I found in this editorial: essentialism, availability cascade and the ostrich effect.