Psychology Wiki  Systematic bias  34,139pages on this wiki
Systematic bias is a bias resulting from the system, leading on
average to systematic errors, in contrast to random errors,
which on average cancel each other out.  It is often used in
exactly the same manner as the term systemic bias, though
systematic is the older and more common form.  Systematic vs.
randomEdit  An example of systematic bias would be a thermometer
that always reads three degrees colder than the actual
temperature because of an incorrect initial calibration or
labelling, whereas one that gave random values within five
degrees either side of the actual temperature would be
considered a random error.  Once detected and quantified, it may
be easy to compensate for a systematic bias. In the example just
given, one knows that the thermometer always reads three degrees
below the correct value. Thus, one can simply make a systematic
correction by adding three degrees to all readings. In other
cases, while a systematic bias is suspected