Our thoughts are biased in many different ways. In fact, Wikipedia defines over 160 different types of cognitive biases. We construct a view of the world in our mind that may be different than how others see it. Everyone can be biased based on how they interpret what they hear, see, and feel. Let’s look at three cognitive biases.
The confirmation bias is the tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it. A series of experiments in the 1960’s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs. Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives.
Another bias is called the decoy effect which is used in marketing very effectively. When we are comparing two similar products we evaluate price and features. By introducing a third option, most people can be guided to selecting one of the first two based on the features and price of the third option.
A third bias is the self-serving bias, which is a bias that distorts our thoughts to help us satisfy our need to maintain our self-esteem. We give more weight to our contributions than contributions of others. We tend to reject negative feedback. It is our way of defending our own self-image.
Cognitive biases are not bad or good. They just are. They alter how you make decisions. Rarely do you ever know the entire story, and the story you are evaluating is the story as you see it. Awareness matters when decision making is critical.
Let’s look at an example. Let’s suppose you were on a team, and all the team members contributed equally to the success of the team. The self-serving bias would allow you to believe that you contributed more than others on the team. Yet, if you are aware of the self-serving bias, you could force yourself to evaluate the situation in more detail. What did they really contribute? What did you really contribute? So being aware of the bias, you can evaluate the situation in a different perspective. If you are not aware, you would make future decisions based on your belief that you contributed more than others.
Cognitive biases are with us all the time. Understanding them can make you a better leader, and a more thoughtful person.