Heuristics are mental shortcuts that human brains make to ease problem-solving and probability judgments in everyday life. These tactics include generalizations and rules of thumb that are effective for making instantaneous judgments, however, they sometimes result in irrational or inaccurate conclusions and outcomes.

Where does the bias occur?

Human brains make thousands of different decisions over a day, whether they are conscious or unconscious. The unconscious decision-making process often involves taking mental shortcuts to improve decision-making efficiency. There are multiple theories proposed by psychologists on why our brain defaults to using heuristics:

Attribute Substitution: Humans substitute simpler but related questions in place of more complex and difficult questions.

Effort Reduction: Humans utilize heuristics as a type of cognitive laziness to reduce the mental effort required to make choices and decisions.

Fast & Frugal: Humans use heuristics because they can be fast and correct in certain contexts. Some theories argue that heuristics are more accurate than they are biased.

Types of Heuristics

Availability heuristic: The availability heuristic involves making decisions based upon how easy it is to bring something to mind. When humans initiate the decision-making process, they quickly remember multiple relevant memories and examples to draw reference on. As these memories are more readily available, the likelihood of judging these outcomes as being common or frequent increases. A clear example would be believing all dogs are friendly and want to be petted just because you grew up with a pet dog and had a positive relationship with it. This could lead to petting a dangerous dog that reminded you of your pet and ends up getting bit or chased.

Representation heuristic: The representativeness heuristic involves deciding by comparing the present situation to the most representative mental prototype. Humans compare aspects of the individual to other mental examples when deciding whether someone is trustworthy or not. For example, an old man might remind you of your grandfather, so you might immediately assume that he is kind, smart, and has many great stories to tell. Hollywood portrays most male partners in relationships as incredibly attractive men, so naturally, your brain programs itself to only like incredibly attractive men. This behavior creates a bias and skews your view of all other men that aren’t as attractive as you’re used to seeing.

Affect: The affect heuristic involves making choices that are influenced by the emotions that an individual is experiencing at that moment. Research has shown that humans are more likely to view decisions as having benefits and lower risk when they are in a good mood. Inversely, negative emotions lead people to focus on the potential downsides of a decision rather than the potential benefits. It’s always best to make important life-changing decisions with a clear head not clouded by negative emotions and bad judgment.

Anchoring: The anchoring bias involves the tendency to be overly influenced by the first bit of information we hear or learn. This makes it more difficult to consider other important information and leads to poorly informed decisions. Anchoring bias can influence how much you are willing to pay for something, causing you to jump at the first offer without searching for a better deal. Anchoring is often used by media outlets in the form of soundbites, by using the most attractive line in their publication to sharply imprint a biased view on a topic with limited information. A drastic statistic can leave a strong impression on someone, leading them to believe that they are knowledgeable about the subject.

Underlying issues that stem from Heuristics

As the brain is formed and learns to make decisions on the go it learns to make mental shortcuts to reduce the cognitive load and increase reaction time. It’s an evolutionary trait to make split-second decisions based on memories, the available information, or emotions. The underlying problem is that it doesn’t always lead to the most desired outcome. These mental shortcuts are used to classify and categorize people, yet often overlook all relevant information to create a prejudice or stereotype categorization that is not representative of the truth.

Conclusion

Executive bias training embeds these foundational areas. Meet with our consultant to discuss training and bias prevention plans to improve emotional dexterity.