BIASES IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND WAYS AND MEANS TO COPE WITH THEM

This article is meant for young persons who are about to enter earning phase of life after completing the study phase.

Whether a person plans to do a job or to be an entrepreneur, she/he would come across the speciality of human behaviour, termed “bias”. Incidentally, we humans are the only animals who are biased by our basic nature.

There are large number of biases, main among being the sixteen described below:

1. Affinity bias, also referred to as similarity bias, is the unconscious human tendency to gravitate toward other people with similar backgrounds, interests, and beliefs. This kind of bias ultimately proves detrimental to the companies or organisations where it occurs to abundantly. Therefore, it would be in best interests of the company or organisation, where this kind of bias prevails, to recognise it and to take action by way of brain storming and if needed counselling.

2. Ageism is a bias which refers to the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age. The ageism bias is faced by elderly, near retirement persons at work place. The younger group of co-workers try to avoid the older ones. Most people who engage in ageist behaviour don’t realize what they’re doing. It can be uncomfortable to call someone out on inappropriate behaviour, but it’s the best way to combat prejudice. If you notice that someone is leaving you out of a conversation and speaking only to the younger adults, make your voice heard. If someone speaks to you in a condescending tone of voice, tell them that it isn’t necessary. If you’re a younger adult with an aging loved one and you see your peers engaging in ageist behaviour, say something rather than being a silent spectator. These moments can become valuable opportunities to help the victims of Ageism Bias.

3. Anchoring bias, which describes people’s tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they receive on a topic. Regardless of the accuracy of that information, people use it as a reference point, or anchor, to make subsequent judgments. Anchoring bias is the habit of trusting the first data received and it often manipulates critical thinking processes. To avoid decision fatigue, your brain unconsciously looks for shortcuts in reasoning processes by trusting initial data. Let’s say your coworker tells you about their family. They start by discussing their one-year-old and you’ve already established an idea of how old they are in your head, even as they move on to discuss their 10-year-old. If you’d been unaffected by that first information, you’d consider this new information more thoroughly and adjust your age expectation. But that first number anchored your idea of how old your coworker is. To avoid decision fatigue, your brain unconsciously looked for shortcuts in reasoning processes by trusting initial data. One evidence-based and straightforward strategy to combat Anchoring Bias is to come up with reasons why that anchor is inappropriate for the situation.

4. Attribution bias, which is the tendency to explain a person’s behaviour by referring to their character rather than any situational factor. In essence, it leads us to overestimate the weight of someone’s personality traits, and underestimate the influence of their individual circumstances. Best way to combat Attribution Bias is ‘Empathy’. Practice putting yourself in other people’s shoes to better understand their motivations, circumstances and perspectives. Develop a growth mindset: Embrace the idea that failures can be opportunities for learning and growth rather than solely attributing them to external factors.

5. Authority bias, a term popularised by American psychologist Stanley Milgram, is defined as having an unreasonably high confidence in the belief that the information verified by a person with formal authority is correct, and therefore an individual is likely to be more influenced by them. Authority bias can affect judgements and decision-making at both an individual and group level. The strategies for overcoming this bias include detaching yourself from the authority figure, detaching the information from the authority figure, and seeking out diverse perspectives and sources.

6. Beauty bias, which in general refers to those who are given preferential treatment because they are deemed more attractive, whether consciously or unintentionally. Few people, including employers, confess to preferring to hire people who are more physically attractive rather than a “Plain Jane” candidate. Primarily, it’s incredibly important to accept your physicality as it is. You have the body you do, and that’s a fact. A healthy dose of positive body image does the mind wonders. It’s far easier and more pleasurable to dress and accessorize your body when you fully embrace your physicality, even any imperfections. Being fully realistic about your physicality, you’re able to make the most of what you have so others who could sit in judgment of you are focused on the positives — which is exactly what you should do. You should strive to be at your best for the position you seek because — it’s clear that in most cases — being attractive helps you reach your career goals and positively impacts your salary. If you’re less attractive, embark on an image development program to help you realize your full potential. And if you feel you are exceptionally attractive, it may be very important to tone down your good looks so you are perceived as being right for the job you’re after. Ultimately, you can’t control how others perceive you. But when you take as much control for yourself as you can, you are doing all that you can to show yourself as highly competent for the position you may be seeking. It pays to honestly assess your personal image, because someone in the hiring and promotions process is almost certainly going to.

7. Confirmation bias, which means looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs. This biased approach to decision making is largely unintentional, and it results in a person ignoring information that is inconsistent with their beliefs. The hardest thing about defeating confirmation bias is that it requires someone to challenge their own logic, which is easier said than done. The simplest way to avoid confirmation bias is to look at a belief you hold, and search out ways in which you’re wrong, rather than the ways in which you’re right.

8. Conformity bias, which is the tendency to change one’s beliefs or behavior to fit in with others. Instead of using their own judgment, individuals often take cues from the group they are with, belong to, or seek to belong to about what is right or appropriate. They then adapt their own behavior accordingly. Knowing what Conformity bias is, one should try to analyse his behaviour and try to judge oneself whether he/she is influenced by someone else‘s beliefs or behaviour. If a Conformity bias does exist, one should try to come out of it using his/her willpower.

9. Contrast effect, an unconscious bias that happens when two things are judged in comparison to one another, instead of being assessed individually. Our perception is altered once we start to compare things to one another. We tend to judge them relative to each other rather than on their own merit.

10. Gender bias is behaviour that shows favouritism toward one gender over another. Most often, gender bias is the act of favouring men and/or boys over women and/or girls. However, this is not always the case. Ways and means to cope with gender bias are (a) Learn to recognise gender bias, (b) Check your own interactions for bias, © Audit your media choices, (d) Audit your media choices. Consider the books, magazines and podcasts you consume, and the people and brands you follow on social media. Make a conscious effort to listen to women’s voices and adventure stories from a variety of backgrounds.

11. Halo effect occurs when our overall positive impression of a person, product, or brand is based on a single characteristic. If our first impression is positive, the subsequent judgments we make will be colored by this first impression. Example: The halo effect is a common bias in performance appraisals. Halo effect is used in advertising.

· The Halo effect involves people over-relying on first impressions.

· It can lead to poor judgements and affect choices, for example when recruiting new employees or choosing a romantic partner.

· A three-step approach that involves slowing down decisions can help to overcome the Halo effect. Methods of coping with the Halo effect comprise understanding it and managing it, as explained further.

· If you are familiar with American singer Beyoncé’s hit song ‘Halo’ you may have a sense of the all-encompassing brightness associated with halos. In the context of religious art, halos are crowns of light rays or luminous circles that surround the heads of heroes, saints or angels. The halo’s glow has the power to portray people in a special, otherworldly light. Given its influence on appearances, the halo also lends itself to describing a common bias in people’s judgements of others. The Halo effect often has dangerous consequences. It can cloud people’s judgements and mislead them to make unfair or inappropriate decisions. As demonstrated in the examples above, outcomes can include poor recruitment choices or inevitable heartbreak. Luckily, there is a simple strategy for tackling the Halo effect and training yourself not to judge a book by its cover. Biases are most influential when we allow for automatic, intuitive and emotional thinking to influence our judgements. To reduce the influence of cognitive biases, we therefore have to slow things down and control subjective feelings. The following three-step process can help: (a) Be aware: Awareness is the first step towards overcoming errors in judgement. Keeping in mind the potentially harmful consequences of first impressions is helpful when meeting new people. This might involve flagging up biases while shortlisting job candidates or reminding yourself of past judgement errors when embarking on a new relationship; (b) Slow down: The second step is to deliberately slow down your judgement and any subsequent decisions. Never make a recruitment choice straight after the interview. Instead, you could prolong the decision process by scheduling another panel meeting for the next day. In the context of romantic dating, it’s typically helpful to take your time when getting to know the other person. For example, you might decide to go on several dates before taking things to the next level; © Be systematic: Finally, try to engage your analytical reasoning skills by taking a systematic approach. This sounds trickier than it is. In the context of interviewing, you could prepare a list of essential criteria and force yourself to consider each one carefully before making a choice. Similarly, when choosing a new romantic partner, you can follow a mental checklist of key “must-have’s” or absolute “no-no’s.” If you think a racist partner is going to cause problems in a long-term relationship, any racist jokes should ring alarm bells even if they have the looks of a professional model!

12. Height bias, in principle, it refers to the discriminatory treatment against individuals whose height is not within the normal acceptable range of height in a population. Various studies have shown it to be a cause of bullying, commonly manifested as unconscious microaggressions. In common work place a taller person has better acceptance over one of short height. Height bias or heightism is the tendency to judge a person who is significantly short or tall. This may seem a bit far-fetched, but one study found that one’s annual earnings can increase up to 13 percent with an additional centimetre in height. Another study found that tall candidates are perceived as more competent, employable, and healthy, which may explain why 58% of male CEOs at major companies are over six feet tall. How to Avoid Height Bias: Conducting anonymous interviews, phone interviews or video interviews will reduce your susceptibility to judge a person based on their height. Also, simply knowing that this bias is a common social behaviour will help you identify your bias against candidates.

13. Horn effect is a cognitive process in which we immediately ascribe negative attitudes or behaviours to someone based on one aspect of their appearance or character. A common example of this is overweight people, who unfortunately are often stereotyped as being lazy, slovenly, or irresponsible. Ways and means of combating Horn effect are like those for Height bias.

14. Name bias is a discriminatory act that involves a negative judgment or preference for a person’s name. In recruitment, a candidate’s name affects the hiring decision through either conscious or unconscious bias motives. Considering a candidate’s name as a reason not to hire is a prejudiced action. Name Bias affects On-line Applications Name bias can be avoided if you omit the candidate’s name and personal information — like email, phone number and address — from their application materials. You can either do this by assigning candidates a number or have an unbiased third-party team member omit this information for the hiring team until they bring a candidate in to interview. This will ensure that hiring teams are selecting candidates based on their skills and experiences without the influence of irrelevant personal information.

15. Nonverbal bias occurs when people exhibit relatively negative (less positive) nonverbal behaviour toward specific social groups. Nonverbal behaviour is different from actions and verbal behaviour. Undue emphasis is placed on nonverbal cues that are unrelated to job performance. For Example: Hair length or distracting mannerisms are good examples of nonverbal bias. Strong candidates who interview after weak ones may appear even more qualified than they are because of the contrast caused by nonverbal bias. While recruiting candidates it is for the recruiter to make sure that this kind of bias doesn’t affect the recruitment.

16. Overconfidence bias is a well-established bias in which a person’s subjective confidence in their judgments is reliably greater than the objective accuracy of those judgments, especially when confidence is relatively high. Overconfidence is one example of a miscalibration of subjective probabilities. In order not to become a victim of the Overconfidence Bias you should regularly assess your confidence levels and question your beliefs, assumptions, and biases to keep them in check and prevent overconfidence from clouding your decision making. Emphasize risk management: Focus on managing risk in your investment strategy rather than trying to maximize returns.

I hope that the above would be helpful to those setting their feet towards start of a career in any direction.