While there are standard facts and truths, not everyone looks at them through the same eyes. Instead, individuals have their own lived experiences, and sometimes they place their experiences, their perceived reality, over the objective reality in front of them. This cognitive bias affects the world in many ways. Continue reading to learn more.
Bias in Business
Facts and data should reign supreme in the business world. Endless streams of this information exist, but everyone has to look at it and come to the same conclusions, which they do not. One example of cognitive bias in business is conservatism bias. Here, people fail to consider new information and data over existing knowledge and data. Therefore, it’s difficult for those who practice conservatism bias to change existing business practices, but doing so is an important part of running a successful business.
Similarly, confirmation bias also exists in businesses where employees or business owners don’t want to fully accept the reality of their situation. If your business is failing and you practice conservatism bias, you don’t want to accept it. Instead, you want to hide from this reality and look for the data that shows your business is thriving.
Fire and Police Investigations
One of the clearest areas where cognitive bias can affect the world is through police and fire investigations. Police officers and investigators, when confronted with cases big and small, mostly rely on objective truths and evidence to come to conclusions. However, their perceptions change after living in the world and working in their line of duty for so long. One example of cognitive bias these investigators encounter is confirmation bias, where they have one theory, stick to it, and fail to investigate other data that can contradict that theory. Unfortunately, it’s a common practice, and police officers are not the only ones implementing it.
Firefighters also have this cognitive bias in their line of work. When conducting fire investigation reports, they can have the same forms of confirmation bias, leading them to not consider all evidence and data fairly. Thankfully, these investigators are taking steps to minimize cognitive bias in their fire investigation reports by implementing the fair and neutral scientific method.
Technology Bias
Cognitive bias is also incredibly prevalent in technology. Many look to technology, robots, and AI as the solution to these existing biases, but humans with biases are the ones programming these solutions.
Take job hiring, for example. Many businesses have outsourced hiring processes to AI systems to find the best candidates. Still, by pooling from existing data, these AI systems replicate the existing inequalities in the system. AI determines who was hired in the past, and since the business world has been largely white, male, and well-educated, AI will let those candidates through to the next process. Instead of addressing existing inequalities, it perpetuates them.
Cognitive bias affects the world in many ways, but once people learn and become more aware of their biases, they can consciously avoid them. It takes a lot of work and repeated action, but it is the best way to ensure that the world is fair and that everyone plays by the same rules. One person’s subjective reality shouldn’t dictate everyone else’s reality.
