Reducing Confirmation Bias in Your Workplace
👔 Years ago, a well-dressed White male colleague of mine, let’s call him Bill, was promoted to Dean. When I congratulated him, he said “I fit the part.” He was only half kidding. Bill was one of the few faculty on campus who wore a suit and tie every day. In fact, he already “looked like” a Dean!
🧠 Does this story resonate with your own workplace experience? It’s an example of how confirmation bias can play out in subtle ways. 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.
☕️ We all have cognitive biases. In fact, 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.
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 Dr 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 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. Practicing 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 you want to be truly effective as a manager, leader, or really anything, you need to do the personal work of discovering and mitigating your biases.
👉🏽👉🏽Don’t let bias stand in the way of achieving your DEIB goals! Message me to discuss how to implement education that will mitigate bias in your workplace.
[Image description: A human brain depicted in the colors of purple, lavender, blue, and black with the words “Confirmation Bias” in white]
