'But I'm not biased' I hear you cry!
The thing is, we all can be experiencing bias in different ways – without even knowing it.
I joke with my parents about my daughter. I say that I know I am biased, but she really is a great kid. Unfortunately, the kind of bias I am talking about for this blog is a bit more sneaky and less obvious than the kind of bias we might naturally expect to have towards our offspring!
How we experience bias
If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, you know I talk often about our brains’ preference for laziness, to preserve energy. This is also what is happening when biases come into play – mental shortcuts to facilitate easy decision-making. It just may not be the best decision every time if we aren’t careful!
Anchoring bias
This means we give a lot of weight to the first piece of information we pick up about something, meaning we relegate or even discount other contradicting pieces of information we pick up later on. For example, you tell your friend you are looking to buy a car. Your friend offers their opinion, saying they had a terrible experience with xx car, it always needed fixing in some way, terrible miles per gallon and so on. They then offer their view on another car, saying how it is so reliable and cost effective. When you go to test drive a car, you are likely to already be predisposed positively towards the one your friend has raved about, even though you’ve not even driven it yet, and may decide not to even bother looking at xx car that your friend said was no good.
It’s not to say your friend was wrong of course. But you may have anchored your bias towards one option and away from another, despite what the salesman tries to tell you about the newer version’s reliability record, or what other (perhaps more solid) evidence may come to light that might mean the first car, or any other car for that matter, may be a better choice for you.
Availability bias
This refers to basing decisions on what we remember. And in this case, what we remember is what we infer to be true and therefore likely to happen. It means we can amplify risks unnecessarily or fail to see what other options there may be – ‘what I see / can remember is all there is on this matter’. Sometimes when all we can see are undesirable options, it may be because that is all we are currently aware of. It may not mean that there aren’t other possibilities too. Having an open mind, and being willing to actively seek out new information is a way to keep this bias at bay, as well as considering actual hard facts (not just our own experiences or memories) regarding the likelihood or risk of an event.
Confirmation bias
Before looking into bias in more detail, I’ll be honest, this was the one I was aware of. This is our tendency to seek, notice or use the evidence that backs up what we know or think we know! Not only this, you are even more likely to spot these examples more readily around you – and not see the ones to the contrary, so it can be a double whammy of bias!
This can be a tough one to counter, even if it can be the one form of bias we are more aware we are doing. Being prepared to entertain alternative views and to challenge what you think you know already is a good place to start, otherwise we may be missing out on other possibilities.
Waste bias
This refers to our inability to let something go that no longer serves us, because of all the time, effort and money we have already invested in it.
So, a bit like being on a career path, nearing the summit of the mountain (maybe a promotion), and yet starting to realise that maybe you are on the wrong mountain and feeling it’s too late to start again elsewhere. As a coach, I feel I have a little experience of this one. I’ve had a fairly long career in HR, worked my way up, studied, achieved chartered status... and then changed direction. But I don’t view this as a waste. I’ve taken everything I’ve learned, everything I am and all my skills with me in my new direction. Yes it can of course be frustrating to realise you are not heading in the right direction, or the one you thought you were heading in, but isn’t applying more time, effort and money in that direction an even greater waste?
Can you recognise where bias may have influenced some of your past decisions? I hope you've found this overview of bias types helpful, please do feel free to get in touch and let me know what's come up for you! Kathryn@kbmindfulcoaching.com.
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