7 cognitive biases that impact your decision making - website

As you made your decision on the recent Brexit vote, you may well have been impacted by something called a “Confirmation Bias”. This is where we tend to only listen to information that confirms our preconceptions.

This is one of a myriad of cognitive biases that can operate almost automatically, to bias your thinking and affect your daily decision making.

Bias is about having a one-sided view of new ideas or situations.

Awareness is key…..

In my work I talk about the importance of awareness for you and this is another area where we must endeavour to move ourselves out of autopilot to challenge the impact of these.

Cognitive biases are to some extent helpful, because they give our brains shortcuts as we process millions of pieces of information. But they are also unhelpful because they can lead to bad decisions.

Here are 6 other cognitive biases for you to be mindful of:

Anchoring Bias

You are over reliant on the 1st piece of information you hear (I talk about research into GPs in this area at the Discovery Workshop!)

Groupthink Bias

Your desire for group consensus means you set aside your own ideas or hold back from saying something unpopular.

Planning Fallacy Bias

You under-estimate the time needed to complete a task. Regardless of how often you’ve done it before, however expert you are, you don’t allow enough time.

Stereotyping Bias

You expect a group or person to have certain qualities without real information about the person (I tell Accountants to avoid this when presenting!)

Zero Risk Bias

You put too much value on certainty, eliminating risk entirely.

Blind Spot bias

This is when you fail to recognise your own cognitive biases! You can see them in others but not yourself.

There are many more including: Selective Perception, Placebo Effect, Recency, Conservatism and Confidence Bias (I like that one!).

Do your best to be aware of the many biases in action and move out of autopilot. Knowing these biases doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t succumb to them but you at least stand a better chance of making good decisions.

If you need help in developing a strong resilient mind set, you can join us at our PI Leadership Discovery Workshop on August 22nd (details can be found here).

Or please feel free to call us on 0115 903 3133 or email at lead@theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com and we can discuss how we can help you in any way.