4 Strategies for Dealing with your Biased Thinking

Joel MacDonald
Sep 6, 2018 · 3 min read

We’re all biased.

Back in early July, I talked about just that when I shared some basics about cognitive biases here. A couple weeks later, I looked at the hidden social biases that we all seem to develop from our earliest years here. Then here I covered how we tend to think in two speeds — fast and slow — and how the former contributes to biased thinking while the latter helps us avoid some of that biased thinking. Last time around, I suggested a handful of key cognitive biases to understand and keep an eye out for here.

So, we’re all biased. Now what?

As someone involved as a professional in the teaching and learning field, I can’t help wonder how over the years biases have shaped my instruction, or shaped a student or shaped the practices of other instructors and teachers that I have worked with. Or, how did the biases of those individuals I was interacting with effect how they interpreted my messages? Fascinating food for thought I really do think.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to help us temper some of our potentially biased and helpful thinking.

Get used to admitting that you are probably biased — It’s hard to know you are something or that you do something if you don’t see it or recognize it in yourself. First things first. Admit that you are biased. Get comfortable with that admission. Work from that place to keep your biases in check.

Find a Feedback Friend — Since we aren’t as objective as we think, being self-reflective and trying to see yourself for who you really are will only take you so far. You’ll still have blind spots or things that you do that aren’t that helpful to you that you don’t know are there. This is where critical input from someone you trust can really help. But it needs to be someone who will tell you the truth, not simply reflect like a mirror what you already believe about yourself.

Forecast Critically — It is through our decision-making where our biased thinking appears as tangible actions. Don’t wait until you’ve acted to examine how your biases may have impacted your decision. Make a prediction. Ask yourself how you are going to feel about that decision if it turned out for the absolute worst. Then see if it’s still something you’d be willing to do.

Think in Bets — Annie Duke, the author of the book Thinking in Bets, talks at length about this. She dropped out of a PhD in cognitive psychology to become a pretty successful professional poker player. Thinking in bets is what you’ve got to learn to do well if you want to succeed in poker. As Duke discovered, thinking in bets is helpful for dealing with biased thinking in every day life too. Like the forecasting suggestion previously you consider the negative outcomes as well as the positive. You look at the whole spectrum. Which of those outcomes are you willing to bet high on? Which ones are you less willing to bet on? When you think like this, you help reduce the emotional impact of a decision and emotions can often play an integral part in biased decision-making. Not only that but you are now slowing your thinking down. Deciding what to do based on what you believe is thinking quickly. When you ask yourself if you are willing to be on the outcome of your belief, you give yourself the needed time to analyze your belief within that outcome’s context more deeply.

UPEIELO

UPEI’s E-Learning Office Blog

Written by

UPEIELO

UPEI’s E-Learning Office Blog

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