Mind Tricks

When your brain is making decisions without you.

I’m currently reading Work Rules, by Laszlo Bock (Head of People Operations at Google). Chapter 5 touches on confirmation bias in the context of interviewing — the idea that you make your decision on an applicant within the first 10 seconds of meeting them, and then spend the rest of the interview looking for information to support that decision, rather than objectively reviewing the candidate’s fit for the role.

Confirmation bias is one of many unconscious biases I first came across in an article on the mistakes our brains make every day — staying in the cinema despite disliking the film, or buying a sixth scratch card despite losing on the previous five.

These unconscious biases can be hugely positive — they allow us to quickly filter information, make choices even where data is missing, and to ‘trust our gut’. But they also encourage flawed decision making and errors in judgement. In the workplace, where they influence everything from hiring and product decisions to our interactions with coworkers, they can be especially costly.

We are all* affected by unconscious biases, but by making ourselves aware of these ways of thinking we can work to overcome them, encouraging an inclusive, supportive, and productive work environment.

Here’s the low down on the unconscious biases that could be negatively affecting how you respond to different situations in the office. I’ve left out the most common — the herd effect, stereotypes, and effective heuristic (judging based on appearance), so hopefully you’ll learn something new.

1. Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias occurs when we actively seek out information to confirm our existing beliefs. If we decide we like a candidate within the first ten seconds of their interview, we are likely to ask easy questions and lead them to answers that will show them in a positive light. If we are unimpressed by a weak handshake and introduction, we’ll ask more difficult questions and try to trip them up, to “prove” they’re not right for the job.

So we actively seek out perspectives that support our views, and ignore or dismiss information (and facts!) that go against our beliefs. But what if your initial judgement was wrong? You could potentially miss out on an excellent candidate because they were nervous and made a bad first impression. At Neverbland we counteract this effect by using a standard set of questions across interviews, and making sure we objectively review the answers.

2. Sunk Cost Fallacy

Sunk costs refers to any cost that has been paid and can’t be recovered. Human beings are wired to feel loss more strongly than gain, so once spent, we find it extremely difficult to ignore this investment of money, time or effort.

This preoccupation with the perceived loss, leads us to downplay or ignore other factors that should be considered in order to make a rational decision.

An example;

It’s Friday, you need to hire a freelance developer to start on a project on Monday. Due to timing constraints you engage a recruiter to fill the role. They find an acceptable candidate who you hire. Over the weekend you bump into an old, trusted colleague who happens to know an excellent developer that could start on Monday. Great! Except, if you cancel the recruiter’s candidate you will still be invoiced for the first day.

The better, less risky option is to cancel the recruiter’s candidate, who you’ve never worked with before, and use the freelancer your ex-colleague has recommended. But you choose to use the recruiter’s developer to avoid “losing” the first day fee, as you see this unrecoverable cost as the most important factor. However, if you’re aware of the sunk cost fallacy, you can downplay this cost and make the right decision.

The thing to remember is that you have already spent the cost, it’s in the past. Don’t let the past cloud your choices for the future.

3. Affinity Bias

The affinity bias can also be known as homophily or the similarity bias. It’s basically a ‘love of the same’, i.e. the desire to be associated with people like us, whether we’ve got something in common with them or we just see part of ourselves in them.

“Alex would probably be a great cultural fit for NEVERBLAND; we grew up in the same town.”

Our behaviour towards a person is likely to be affected by the affinity bias. If you meet a new partner or client and instantly find out you like the same TV shows, you’re likely to feel a natural fondness or preference for them. In a work environment this could make you more likely to accommodate difficult project requests, even when it isn’t in the best interests of the project. By being aware of this bias, we can work to take it into account and mitigate it.

4. The Horns and Halo Effects

The halo effect occurs when your overall positive impression of a person influences your feelings and thoughts about that person’s character or properties, so even their ambiguous or neutral traits are viewed positively. You might like the way someone dresses, and therefore decide they are the best at their job, even when their work proves otherwise.

The horn effect is the opposite. If you pick up on one negative aspect of a person’s personality, you’re likely to have a negative predisposition towards everything about them. So if someone chews with their mouth open, you might decide they’re a rubbish Project Manager.

For example, when reviewing an applicant’s CV we might see that they got a degree from a particularly great university. As a result, we tend to see everything else about that person surrounded by the glow of that achievement.

5. In-Group Favouritism

In-group favouritism stems from our tribal roots and primal need to be in a troop. Whilst it helps us form bonds with the people in our perceived groups, such as our team at work, it can make us dislike those outside of our circle. As a result we’re likely to overestimate and overvalue the capabilities and competency of the individuals in our group, meaning we’re more likely to select them for a task or to allocate resources to them.

6. Status Quo Bias

Human beings don’t like change, change is risky. So we often make choices that mean things stay the same. But without change it’s difficult to push forwards and grow as a business. Status quo bias kills innovation. So whenever you catch yourself making the safe, easy choice, think to yourself — what’s the worst that would happen if you took a risk?

So there you have it. 6 mistakes you’ve probably been making every day without knowing it.

Mind. blown.

*Don’t think you’re affected by unconscious biases? Pop along to Project Implicit, the Harvard organisation that aims to educate the public about hidden biases. Try one of their tests which measures the strength of links you make between concepts, for example race or sexuality, and evaluation of stereotypes, such as whether those concepts are good or bad.

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