Cognitive Biases which can affect a committee’s search Decisions
It is impossible to be unbiased. We can only be aware and acknowledge them and work to mitigate them. Biases are especially crucial during facilitation. People often fall into the trap of various forms of prejudices. One of them is the anchoring bias which is seen when a person over-relies on the first impression of a piece of information to make comparisons. The other example is availability bias. This bias is similar to the anchoring bias except for its use of the data to make decisions instead of comparisons. People also fall into the bandwagon effect’s trap. This form of bias happens when a person accepts a belief simply because other people do. Bandwagon is also known as groupthink or herd mentality.
When a person or a group find themselves over-focusing on the benefits of a decision, minimizing its drawbacks, they are likely to be within the choice-supportive bias. Additionally, when a person of people focus increasingly on information which reinforces beliefs they previously help, making them ignore evidence, then they are under the spell of the confirmation bias. Sometimes people find themselves experiencing the fundamental attribution error when they overemphasize their factors or underestimate existing situational factors, for instance, when they are explaining people’s behaviour. There is also the Halo Effect which happens when a person assumes that because an individual is bad or good at one thing, then they are equally bad or good at another. The ingroup preference bias is also common. It occurs when individuals divide themselves into different groups, and each group assigns itself positive attributes.
The “Jerk” Factor is also a common non-cognitive bias which occurs when the academic class tends to over-value people who portray cruel but brilliant behaviours while under-valuing intelligent and nicely behaved individuals. Further, the ostrich effect is a bias which takes place when a person ignores data or bad news concerning a decision. Some people have also fallen victims of the recency effect where they find it easy to heavily weigh or remember recent events as compared to potential future or past events. Lastly, when individuals prefer choices which offer certainty of smaller benefits as compared to alternatives with higher risk and even immense potential benefits, then they are affected by the zero-risk bias.
I have often found myself over-focusing on the benefits of a decision while minimizing its drawbacks, falling into the choice-supportive bias. To avoid these biases, one has to understand each one and make rational decisions after keen consideration of how to avoid them.