Breaking Down Bias
We all have cognitive biases and our culture reinforces them in ways that we often don’t recognize.
For example, I’m a coffee lover. When I recently googled, “Is coffee good for you?” Google showed me lots of articles and information about the benefits of coffee—essentially giving me the information I wanted and thus confirming my bias. This is why it’s essential to be aware of our own bias when consuming information.
Confirmation bias is a common form of cognitive bias that inclines us to favor information confirming our previously existing beliefs and discount information that contests them.
5 Ways to Reduce Confirmation Bias Starting Today!
1. Challenge yourself to consider what parts of the story you may have missed. Ask yourself, “Under which circumstances and for whom is this NOT true?” (Thank you to Brandy L. Simula, PhD, ACC for sharing this question with me.)
2. Develop habits and practices to check your biases. If you’re hiring, are you giving equal consideration to those who “fit the part” and those who don’t match your preexisting idea of what this candidate should look or act like?
3. Step back and get some distance on a familiar issue or problem, which can help you slow down and see things from a new point of view.
4. Actively seek out people with perspectives that are different from yours. Ask questions. When you do, try to listen to what they have to say with an open mind. Cultivating curiosity is a great way to offset confirmation bias.
5. Practice noticing when you’re wrong. Make a habit of noting when your assumptions, predictions, or beliefs were proven to be incorrect. This is a powerful way to begin interrupting rather than confirming your preexisting beliefs.
Takeaway: Not every form of bias leads to harm or bad decision-making, but they certainly can. If we want to be truly effective as leaders, activists, or really anything, we need to do the personal work of discovering and mitigating our biases!
ID: Cartoon by Sketchplanations: "Confirmation Bias: Seeking Evidence That Confirms Our Beliefs... and Ignoring Information That Contradicts." The image depicts 2 groups of people--one coded as blue and the other red--in front of a newsstand. A figure wearing blue reads a newspaper and says "They're at it again. I knew it." A figure wearing red, also reading a newspaper, says "What rubbish are they saying now?"
