We are going to start, if that is okay with you, with the premise that we are talking about someone else, and not ourselves. We are reasonable and objective people, but let us examine some of those other poor souls out there who don’t see things as clearly as we do.
Image courtesy of “https://www.flickr.com/photos/sohelparvezhaque/”
Those ‘things’ are everyday events and what we are interested in is the perception of these happenings and how that impacts on people’s behaviour. We are looking primarily from a business perspective here, but there are obvious parallels into everyday lives.
Essentially, people’s perceptions are swayed in two fundamental ways; by matters that we know (as thinking and sensible people) are wrong, and by other less obvious ways that are really tricks of the mind. The first is often referred to as conscious biases and the latter as reflex biases. Awareness is undoubtedly the best method of countering these biases and that is one of the driving forces behind this article.
There has been a good bit of publicity in the US recently concerning racism within the police, on the back of a spate of shootings of black youths. Some studies have concluded that elements of the US police force are racist, in a similar way perhaps as the Met Police were labelled institutionally racist some years ago. Efforts are being made at re-education to address this issue as it has been recognised that ‘equality and diversity’ type biases need to be addressed with a top-down approach.
Such conscious biases are, of course, everywhere in our society and seemingly require a constant counter-message to cajole, educate, remind, persuade and inform us to behave better. These are biases that essentially we know are wrong.
Reflex biases are harder to recognise, but once in the open are easier to deal with. The key is to understand how the mind processes information in this busy world, where the brain has to take shortcuts in order to make decisions quickly to keep pace with events.
The brain is remarkable good at filling in the gaps when presented with only a few facts, by concocting a storyline from these facts, previously held views and the person’s best or worst hopes for the situation. This storyline, unless challenged, can become an established belief, which in turn is used as a basis to assess new situations. Such stories are judged by their believability over the quality of the evidence.
Think of those occasions when a person has made a first impression, either good or bad, and how enduring that opinion is. People quickly become anchored in a view and tend to hold that view long past its use by date. Adding to this, as you may have noticed, humans really don’t like being wrong and once a stated position is taken, there is an inclination to argue black is white in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Our feelings can be a dominant force in our thinking. Can we see past our feelings to achieve unbiased conclusions? I had a great holiday in Canada last year – I like Canadians a lot – Let us invest in this Canadian company versus West Africa is full of corrupt dictators – drugs transit West Africa to the UK – Let us invest anywhere but West Africa. Perhaps a tad oversimplified, but I think you can see the way we can become predisposed to certain lines of thought.
Image by courtesy of Honest Reporting
What is easily imaginable and available to the brain will likely be the first thought made. Terrorists present a real threat to life in the UK, migrants are overrunning Europe, green belt land is disappearing fast, all bankers are corrupt – some examples of the persuasive messages we receive persistently that are not necessarily true, but have an impact on our thinking.
How easy is it to view a business leader who has taken some crazy risks and won as having flair and foresight? Is there a danger of crowning a reckless leader with a halo of prescience and boldness? Whereas the CEO, with a couple of unlucky breaks, soon gains a reputation for poor judgement and business skills. How often, in our personal lives, do we think irrationally we are on a lucky roll after two £10 wins on the lottery?
As stated earlier, the way forward is greater awareness, although in the case of reflex biases this tends towards a bottom-up approach so individuals become mindful of the problem.
This article is merely an introduction to the subject of biases and why it can be incredibly difficult to make sense of complex situations due to these influences going on within our heads. Coming back to my opening paragraph, I’m not convinced that anyone can truly say that they are unaffected by biases, hence the title…You’re Biased – get over it!
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