Watch your gap and track changes: 1. Self-awareness is the first step towards tackling unconscious bias

I never thought I was subject to unconscious bias. Four months ago, I took a test on unconscious bias and it proved that I am moderately gender-biased. I made an instant analogy between men and natural sciences or technology. Do I believe that women can fit it? Do I see women in such roles? Yes. And why then? The question ‘why’ stuck with me since and made me look deeper into the topic and my own way of so-called conscious/ unconscious thinking.

Almost everything evolved rapidly in our environment due to the innovations within the last centuries. Our brains, minds, and bodies have not. We navigate concepts, social realm, develop A.I., but we biologically operate with the same ‘features’ as our ancestors did millennia ago.

We are the descendants of the greatest anxious people, perhaps only two generations down the line have experienced the ‘social comfort’ of today's times. We have 'Cockroach' engines inside our minds, but we use them to go to the street corner to do groceries. This makes us highly vulnerable to unconscious biases.

What is unconscious bias?

Our unconscious or fast thinking is connected to our internal wiring, or how I like to call it, our internal ‘statistical’ mode. And it has a name: generalization. Our minds are taught to organize information and create patterns. What we see most frequently becomes our reality, no matter if correct or not.

Whilst it helps us evolve and process information quicker, it is automatically translated into our conditioned action system: feelings, attitudes, revealed behavior. The gap lies within the continuously processed large amount of information without awareness in our minds or without logic. Therefore we need active awareness to become more conscious of our own biases and start adjusting behavior. And that can be learned by anyone.

Stacey Gordon Unconscious Bias short course available on LinkedIn Learning provides a clear definition of unconscious bias which ‘refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our views, our actions, and our decision-making ability. The scientific research in this area is overwhelming and compelling. It demonstrates how unconscious bias is automatically activated and affects how we think day to day. It also impacts hiring and evaluation processes and contributes to the lack of workforce diversity.’

What are the 5 most common unconscious biases at work?

Stacey's course on unconscious bias takes as long as a lunch break. She emphasized the most common types of unconscious biases and the best way you can mitigate them. Give it a go.

1. Affinity bias

‘Affinity bias is the tendency to warm up to people like ourselves. We favor those who have something in common with us.’

In all our social groups, we naturally favor those who feel more familiar to us, i.e. who share similar experiences, professions, or places of origin or study.

In workplaces the affinity bias can lead to negative experiences for the employees: exclusion, feeling of isolation, and lack of equality. As managers and leaders, we need to pay close attention to our way of interaction within teams, hiring, and to our communication and evaluation process. If we are not aware of our affinity bias, we might lose people, opportunities and, ultimately, create circumstances that can adversely affect our organizations.

2. Halo bias

'The Halo Effect is our tendency to think everything about a person is good because our first impression of them was good.’

No matter if we are running hiring interviews, provider selection sessions, or trying to find a new partner, in business we pay high respect to the first impression someone makes on us. No doubt that selling skills are relevant for most of the roles in any industry and the way we engage. The same applies to the first project’s results of a new hire.

But does that mean such behaviors will be the consistent standard someone will perform at, without any deviations? To avoid such false beliefs, we need to make sure our internal reviews are inclusive and offer equal opportunities for people to track their progress and celebrate achievements. We need to make sure that we don’t put our teams, projects, and organizations at risk by making performance assumptions. These decisions will have an impact on our culture, key performance indicators, and return on investment.

3. Perception bias

The University of North Carolina Executive Development Program defines perception bias as ‘the tendency to form stereotypes and assumptions about certain groups that makes it difficult to make an objective judgment about individual members of those groups.’

Knowing someone’s affinities and preferences for certain groups helps understanding one’s aspirations, interests, or hobbies. Presuming that an individual has certain qualities based on our former impression of the specific group the individual belongs to, has more than 50% chances to lead to a misunderstanding or a wrong decision. If we imagine hiring or signing a partnership with someone for their association with a group, only to prove later that they have none of the qualities we were looking for, will help us understand the need of avoiding stereotyping. 

4. Confirmation bias

Confirmation Bias is described by Harvard Business Review as ‘seeking out evidence that confirms our initial perceptions, ignoring contrary information.’ It's a little like a debate. Each side prepares for their argument with facts, figures, and studies that will support their position. And, they'll disregard or find fault with the opposing viewpoint, to win the debate. Confirmation bias can make a bad situation worse because we double down and dig in our heels.

We can easily observe how simple it is to get biased information due to its large level of availability, especially when doing internet research. Accessing only resources that confirm our own beliefs and data, will increase the risk of jeopardizing a project, losing a client, and losing credibility. For that reason, we need to always invite others to challenge us, help us identify blind spots we all are subject to. 

5. Groupthink

‘This type of judgment can lead us to make grave mistakes. The bandwagon effect, or groupthink, occurs when individuals try too hard to fit into a group, by agreeing with the majority, or by stifling opinions that may differ from the group’. This type of bias isn’t exclusively connected to large groups. It happens in small groups, even between two colleagues.

We are social, so we seek validation and want to feel accepted. And that’s normal. But we need to try to speak our minds especially in workplaces where we are part of a team and we want to make an impact. Challenging our colleagues or leaders, even when they all are on the same page, is necessary and should be the norm. If we are right, we might save a project, if we are wrong, we can make adjustments. Groupthink bias is something we need to be aware of and let it influence us less. 

Additionally, you can take the Implicit Association Test and quickly check what are your main unconscious biases. It doesn’t change everything, but it is a great place to start.

Happy women’s history month

This month we celebrate women and their footprint across the world. At Linnify we want to support and appreciate the bold, the bright, the authentic, the strong, and hard-working [wo]men in tech by sharing their stories.

Follow us to read them all until the end of the month.