The Authority Bias — Cognitive Bias Review Part VII
This post is the seventh part of a series of business-friendly posts, looking at cognitive biases and how they impact our ability to communicate effectively.
What is it?
The tendency to attribute greater weight and accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure. This happens whether we believe what they are doing or telling us is wrong. In short, we put our own person opinion on hold in lieu of theirs.
Why it occurs:
We feel a deep-seated duty to obey authority throughout our lives, and tend to comply when an authority figure makes a request of us. As we grow up, we learn the benefits of obeying genuine authority as we are led to believe they are more experienced and knowledgeable.
Following people in positions of authority has real benefits as it means you don’t have to spend time and energy figuring things out for yourself — you can just copy, learn from them, or obey and get the benefits.
Where might you see it occur in real life?
Teachers, doctors, police all hold a place on a pedestal in society and we tend to do what they tell us to do. When a doctor tells a President, Prime Minister, King or Queen to remove their trousers and sit on the cold table, they do it. Likewise, seeing someone with 10k+ followers on any social media lends them a certain credibility and authority in our minds. If they tell us that something is interesting or worth attending to, we’ll believe them because we now consider them an authority figure and expert in their field.
Finally, you have probably heard of Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment in 1961: a man conducting the experiment in a white coat asked people to electrically shock patients in a next room, eventually directing them to turn up the dial on the voltage to dangerous and painful levels. The ‘patients’ were actors faking screams and yells for help yet 50% of the people continued to follow the ‘doctor’s’ orders to keep going, later explaining that they felt he must know best.
Why is it important?
An accepted system of authority enables cultures to develop — based around resource allocation, trade, society, family, defence and expansion. It is also part of the package that enables learning and the development of new ideas. As a decision-making shortcut, it can be phenomenally useful (do as the doctor says, or spend 10 years learning yourself).
What is the impact when communicating a message?
When communicating a message, particularly an idea that you want to see taken up by others, remember that demonstrating authority in some way will give you more credibility in the eyes of your audience, and enable them to make a decision much more easily as the decision will feel less risky. Don’t go out of your way to fudge credibility and authority, but if you have it, make sure you use it. There are two primary ways to achieve this:
- Establish and demonstrate your own credibility in the field
- Demonstrate third-party authority figures that believe in your message, product or idea
Remember the reverse — if a figure of authority is stating that your product or idea is not the way to go, your audience is likely to listen to that statement. You need to be aware of this before communicating your message, so do your research and try to understand what authority positions in the market are saying.
If you want to know more please feel free to connect or check out a collection of cognitive biases here. Next up we will take a look at the Isolation Effect.
