Unconscious bias is a prejudice or attitude toward a person or group of people that affects a person's actions and decisions in an unconscious or automatic way. Everyone has unconscious biases, which can be based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, socioeconomic status, education, occupation, or other factors.
While most people are not consciously aware of their own biases, they can have a significant impact on a person's behaviour and decision-making. Unconscious bias can
lead to discrimination in hiring, promotions, and assignments
make it more difficult for some groups to be heard or respected
result in unequal treatment in social interactions
reinforce stereotypes
There are many different types of unconscious bias. Here are some common examples…
Affinity Bias
An affinity bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to interview and prefer to hire candidates that they have things in common with.
This is a tough one! In our personal lives, we’re drawn to people who we share something with but it often has no relevance to whether a candidate is a good fit for a job or not.
Appearance Bias
Appearance bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to make judgments about others based on their physical appearance, rather than on their character or abilities.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to seek out information that supports their own beliefs and to ignore information that contradicts them.
For example, imagine you are interviewing a promising graduate who already has an offer from one of your key competitors. You may have already decided that they are a good candidate and run your questioning in a way that supports this belief.
Conformity Bias
Conformity bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to conform to the norms and expectations of their group.
For example, let’s say you have run a fair and objective recruitment process and decided that the best graduate has a different degree than what you would normally hire for. Those around you may be pushing for a candidate that appears to be better on paper. This can change your perception of the candidate, as well as result in you feeling pressure to go with the decisions of the group.
Gender Bias
Gender bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to make decisions based on beliefs about gender, rather than on what is appropriate for the individual or job in question.
Halo Effect
The halo effect refers to the tendency for individuals to form judgments about others based on a single characteristic.
Of course, it’s important to assign value to big achievements. If you’re interviewing someone who graduates top of their class, that demonstrates valuable attributes. However, more value should be assigned to objectively measuring competencies for each individual job.
Horns Effect
The horns effect is the opposite of the halo effect and refers to the tendency for individuals to form judgments about others based on a single negative characteristic.
It’s easy to count someone out because they graduated with a 2.2. But what if they worked full-time during studying? What if they started a business on the side to support themselves? What if they have transferrable experience from a key competitor?
Heuristic Bias
A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows individuals to make decisions quickly and efficiently based on current emotions. This presents a problem… how can we quickly (and emotionally) decide whether a candidate is a good fit?
We can’t. And this is where heuristic bias comes into play.
Heuristic bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to make judgments based on mental shortcuts, rather than on evidence or logic.
Interviewing is a process that should be taken seriously, with each candidate being given a fair chance to demonstrate their skills, abilities, and personality. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
Ageism is a type of discrimination that refers to prejudice or discrimination against individuals based on their age.
Anchor bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to fixate on the first piece of information they receive (the "anchor") and to base subsequent decisions around that anchor, rather than on subsequent information.
An attribution bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to attribute peoples’ successes to internal factors while attributing their failures to external factors.
An authority bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to defer to figures of authority, even when those figures are not necessarily experts on the topic at hand.
The bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to conform to the beliefs or actions of a group, even if those beliefs or actions are objectively incorrect.
Beauty bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to prefer or trust people who are considered to be attractive.
A belief bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to allow their preexisting beliefs to distort their judgment of new information.
Contrast bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to judge a person or thing more favorably or unfavorably based on how they compare to other people or things.
Hierarchy bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to give preferential treatment to those who are higher up in the hierarchy or power structure.
Hindsight bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to see events that have already happened as being more predictable than they actually were.
Homophily bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to associate and interact with people who are like them, and to avoid those who are dissimilar.
Idiosyncratic rater bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to rate others based on their own personal preferences and biases, rather than on objective criteria.
An illusory correlation is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to see a correlation between two things, even when there is no actual correlation.
Ingroup bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to give preferential treatment to those who are members of their own social group.
A length bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to give more weight or importance to information that is longer, or that takes longer to process.
Loss aversion is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains.
Name bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to form judgments about others based on their names.
Negativity bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to give more weight to negative information than to positive information.
Outgroup bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to perceive members of their own social group as being more diverse than members of other social groups.
Overconfidence bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to be overly confident in their own abilities and judgments.
Peer evaluation bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to be influenced in their evaluations by the opinions of others.
Perception bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to form judgments about others based on their own perceptions, rather than on objective reality.
The placebo effect is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to experience a positive change in their condition after taking a placebo, or "sugar pill."
Recency bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to give more weight to information that is recent, or that they have recently been exposed to.
Status quo bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to prefer things to stay the same, even if a change would be beneficial.
Stereotyping is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to form judgments about others based on their membership in a social group.
Survivorship bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to focus on the survivors of a particular event, and to ignore those who did not survive.
The sunk cost fallacy is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to continue investing in something as long as they have already invested a lot in it, even if it is no longer rational to do so.
Triviality bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency for individuals to give more weight to information that is trivial, or that they consider unimportant.
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We break down how to reduce unconscious bias in your hiring process in this post. Otherwise, if you would like to know more about how GradSmart can support your entry-level talent acquisition, then visit our website or email [email protected]
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