The Courtesy Bias
This post is the twelfth part of a series of business-friendly posts, looking at cognitive biases and how they impact our ability to communicate and operate effectively.
What is it?
The Courtesy Bias is the reluctance of an individual to give negative feedback for fear of offending. The person tends to adopt a more socially correct opinion than their own, looking to avoid displeasing those asking the question.
Why it occurs:
People want to tell you what you want to hear, they’re worried about offending the interviewer and in some cases, when there’s a power imbalance, ‘biting the hand that feeds them’.
Where might you see it occur in real life?
If you’ve ever smiled and nodded in a restaurant when asked if your cold chicken pie was OK, that’s the courtesy bias. You also see it coming up in professional settings quite frequently:
- Focus groups managed by the company in question or interviews in which they’re asked to provide feedback directly about the person or company asking.
- Likewise, employees may not give honest feedback to bosses or their company in the fear of offending.
Fundamentally, in situations especially where there is a power imbalance between the interviewer and the interviewee, you are more likely to see a courtesy bias in action.
Why is it important?
It prevents the truth about the subject in question being revealed. If you look at a business setting, future customers without any such courtesy bias (because they’re far away and not being asked directly by the company) will have no such qualms about lambasting the company for any issues, mistakes or problems — while someone sitting in front of them being asked for the same review and maybe feeling the same way as the far-away customer, will adjust their feedback accordingly, giving a much more positive response than they actually intend.
What is the impact in business?
Companies will sometimes struggle to gain realistic feedback from customers (and employees) if they are directly involved in the interviews themselves. Interviewees need to feel anonymised (or otherwise secure) in some way, to ensure they don’t feel obliged to provide answers in a way that is pleasing to the company, or so that their answers cannot disrupt the relationship they have with the company. There are a number of ways to do this, including using anonymised online surveys and outsourcing interviews to a third-party.
When trying to communicate a message, for example by pitching a product, service or idea, be aware of two factors:
- When practicing a pitch in front of colleagues, the feedback you have received from colleagues (i.e. those close to us) may not provide the full picture — you need to ensure that they are honest in their feedback by fully explaining what is required and why it is beneficial.
- Feedback you get “in the room” during the pitch may be different to the end result. If you receive positive feedback during or immediately after your pitch, don’t get too excited and so try to tie this feedback to direct follow-up actions and next steps, to verify its validity.
It sounds simple — people try to be courteous — but it’s one of the easiest biases to forget.
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 Illusion of Transparency.
