28 March 2022
We so often make quick assumptions or judgments about other people, don’t we? These are so often usually based on limited information that we have about them. It is only later on sometimes that we find out that our assumptions or judgments about them may actually be wrong, although it is often hard for us to just change them by then, because they have already become fixed in our minds for some time already.
Biases are generally held to be beliefs that are not founded by known facts about someone, or a particular group of individuals. There are many different types of bias. In fact, some people say that there are probably over 180 different biases that interfere with how we perceive things, such as ‘invisibility bias’, ‘stereotyping bias’, ‘cognitive bias’, ‘selection bias’, ‘linguistic bias’, ‘expectancy bias’, ‘recall bias’, ‘statistical bias’, ‘information bias’, ‘observer bias’, ‘beauty bias’ etc., to name but a few. Sometimes biases are also called different things, although they really mean roughly the same thing. This is a really fascinating and complicated subject, the more you get into it!
There are probably five to ten main biases though that we have though, which we commonly refer to. Most people argue that ‘conscious’ or ‘unconscious bias’’ are the most common types of bias, (although others say that ‘confirmation bias’ is actually the most common). When you think about it, you can probably put most of these biases under the sub-headings of ‘conscious’ or ‘unconscious’ bias – it just goes round and round. So, I want to focus this week on ‘conscious’ or ‘unconscious’ bias.
We often refer to ‘conscious’ or ‘unconscious’ bias, as being the most important types of bias that form our attitudes, which are outside of our awareness or control and which then influence the way that we act. However, when you really think about it, these are actually two different and distinct things as, again, paradoxically, one you are aware of and one you are not, even though I am saying that you are not aware of both. We also say that unconscious bias affects everyone and is triggered in our mind automatically making these pre-judgments and assumptions.
Conscious bias though is where we are aware of the fact that we may have an unconscious bias but, by bringing it to the surface, we can become unconsciously biased differently! In fact, someone once told me that they had been trained on unconscious bias, but had been told that, if you think that you have an unconscious bias, but then try to do the opposite of what you are worried you were being biased about, you unconsciously become biased the other way. You cannot win!
In order to identify unconscious bias as best you can, you need to examine the reasoning behind an initial assumption or judgment that you may make, to see if you have taken all the facts into account, or if a bias may have crept in. The best way of doing this is to try to slow down your decision-making process, in order to try to lessen the chances of you making a hasty decision and thereby make assumptions or judgments.
You also need to check to see if you have an ‘implicit bias’ (another similar bias) when looking at certain groups of individuals, like cultural or gender, i.e. stereotypes of all people of a certain race, culture, background, faith, geographical location, gender or adopted gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, class etc. (the list goes on again). Biases can also be both good or bad, it doesn’t matter where they come from. People also often look for the same kinds of evidence to prove their point, so you have to consider the possibility of the fact that you may be wrong sometimes with your first assumption.
The irony here is also that often our unconscious biases are actually based on remarks or statements by other people with their own unconscious biases, so this then also leads to another type of bias called ‘confirmation’ bias. Unfortunately, we all have this confirmation bias because, even if you believe that you are very open-minded and only observe the facts before reaching any conclusion, it is highly likely (in fact I would say it is probably impossible for you to do otherwise) that some bias will shape your opinion in the end. So it will be very difficult for you to overcome this natural tendency to make your decisions by looking for information that is consistent with your existing beliefs unintentionally, such as news stories, statistical data or the opinions of others that may back up your initial assumption or theory that you already have.
Of course, the main problem that we have is either confirming our own beliefs when we look at things (i.e. interpreting data to confirm existing expectations).So we also need to look for ways to challenge what we think or believe, The best way to do this is to try to get our information from a range of sources, not just one, so that we can consider things from multiple perspectives. It is also helpful to discuss our thoughts with others, as what they say may challenge our thinking in some way. But this is easier to say than it is to do, as we all make assumptions and judgments too quickly in our minds sometimes and find it very hard to change our natural thinking sometimes.
Finally, whatever you do, you need to try to be as open-minded as possible and be prepared to think out loud and have your ideas challenged by others. As I have said before, we so often forget that other people are not the same as us and may think differently from us, as we continuously project our own feelings about something onto them and then cannot understand why they do not feel the same as we feel about them. And we forget that it is not only our biases at play here, but also their biases – it is a bit circular!
So, this week, as difficult as this is now going to be do based on what I have said here, try to think about whether you are unconsciously or consciously biased about things and know that the best way to try to overcome this (whilst realising that you can never totally overcome bias and may actually end up just going from one bias to another without realising it) is to not be too quick to assume or judge.
🤔 Think Again 