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Confirmation Bias in Hiring is Insidious to Spot, Difficult to Combat and Bad for Business

Bias plays a major role in hiring practices, albeit an often silent, hidden role.   That’s because people have over 200 unconscious (as in not aware of) biases.  Those biases are bad for business.  But, of the many, confirmation bias is probably one of the most common and also perhaps one of the worst unconscious biases.  It is also one the hardest to overcome.  So what is confirmation bias and why is it so bad for business?

Let’s start by defining it.  Confirmation bias happens when someone analyzes or processes information in a way that confirms their own beliefs or assumptions about an individual.  This bias also involves a tendency to ignore, explain away or even forget information that conflicts with those personal beliefs or assumptions.  Confirmation Bias seeks evidence that confirms one’s existing beliefs or theories.  This bias often piggybacks onto other unconscious biases.

Confirmation bias is very hard to overcome or stop.  Even those who think they are very open-minded and fact-driven (and think they never jump to conclusions) have pre-existing opinions and views that influence their choices and decisions.  People have many pre-existing beliefs related to race, national original, religion, gender, disability, age, appearance and genetic information.  But even when the bias is exposed, the bias persists.  And it’s very difficult to combat this natural tendency to let our own beliefs influence our preferences and judgments.

Confirmation Bias at Work

Even small biases have a way of seeping in and affecting outcomes.  For example, a very athletic department manager might believe that overweight people are lazy and not very driven.  (This a very commonly-held conviction that is subjective and not scientifically validated.)  This “pre-existing belief” is a personal bias, not grounded in fact.  But if that bias unwittingly causes the hiring manager to refuse to hire a qualified candidate who is overweight, then that is confirmation bias. 

So how might that happen if it is an unconscious bias?  If the department manager was trying to fill five vacancies for salespeople, he might look at LinkedIn profiles to see photos of the applicants.  Even if the department manager was trying hard to be impartial, he’d likely favor candidates who appeared to be lean and fit, overlooking or ignoring their lack of experience or skills because they looked like a better fit.  He might say that they looked like go-getters or had a lot of energy.  And, that department manager might scrutinize the profiles of applicants who were overweight rejecting them for minor reasons like living too far from the office, even if they had 15 years of stellar sales experience.  That is how confirmation bias works.  The hiring manager will look for information that confirms a pre-held belief even if that belief had no bearing on the person’s ability to do the job.  And the hiring manager would ignore information that contradicted that belief.  And he would do it even if it made no sense.  After all, how much a person weighs and how well they can sell are completely unrelated.

While this is a fictional scenario, this exact scenario was studied and validated by the U.S. National Institute of Health.  R. Pingitore, B.L. Dugoni, R.S. Tindale and B. Spring, who were with the Department of Psychology at Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, conducted a study weight bias.  The results were published in the December 1994 issue of Journal of Applied Psychology in an article titled Bias Against Overweight Job Applicants in a Simulated Employment Interview.  The study assessed whether moderately obese individuals, especially women, would be discriminated against in a mock employment interview. Potential confounding factors were controlled by having 320 selected subjects (Ss) rate videotapes of a job interview that used the same professional actors appearing as normal weight or made up to appear overweight by the use of theatrical prostheses.  So the candidates’ resumes did not change; only how they looked.  The results showed that bias against hiring overweight job applicants existed, especially for female applicants. Bias was most pronounced when applicants were rated by subjects who were physically fit and valued fitness.  

So why is this a problem?  Some might think that it’s fine to let the department manager hire skinny people.  Who cares?  After all, there are currently no federal laws protecting an individual from weight-based workplace discrimination.  And, throughout the U.S., only one state –- Michigan — has a law protecting potential employees from bias based on weight. So if it’s not illegal, why does this kind of confirmation bias matter?

Well, for one thing, legislation is starting to change.  In addition to Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976, which prohibits all employers in the state from committing discrimination based on weight, there are already a handful of local municipalities and at least one court interpreting state disability law to cover this area. This is likely in response to widespread national support from employees to include weight as a protected characteristic.  So soon employers may be prohibited from refusing to hire, discharge, discriminate in compensation, or limit or classify an individual in a way that deprives them an employment opportunity because of their size.

But legal issues aside, this kind of confirmation bias in hiring is problematic because it keeps a company from hiring the best talent available.  It’s that simple.  Confirmation bias creates a kind of blind spot for businesses attracting and retaining top talent.  Top talent is not necessarily going to look and conform to all of the pre-held beliefs that a recruiter, manager or leader might have.  Those biases might keep a company from hiring A-Players who could deliver the most bang for the buck to the company’s bottom line.  That’s why confirmation bias is such a problem.  If pre-held beliefs filter into hiring decisions through confirmation bias, it can only hurt a company’s bottom line.

Confirmation Bias Defies Reason

You’d think that we would be able to spot our own confirmation bias and see past it when the facts are clear and uncontroverted.  But it has been proven time and again that facts actually don’t change minds.  Even when presented with facts that show clear bias, hiring managers did not change their minds.  This was first confirmed scientifically with two studies conducted by Stanford University in the 1970s.  But since then thousands of subsequent experiments have confirmed (and elaborated on) the finding that reasonable-seeming people are often totally irrational in their beliefs, choices and decisions.  When presented with facts that prove that their thinking was wrong, hiring managers were still more likely to stick with their biased selection.  Reasonable-seeming people are often totally irrational regarding choices that align with their beliefs.

Validation Feels Good Short-term but Confirmation Bias Kills Companies Long-term

Why is confirmation bias so strong?  Well there is a physical reason for it.  The body releases a dose of dopamine — which feels very pleasurable — when processing information that supports one’s beliefs.  So it feels good to ‘stick to our guns’ even if we are wrong.  It actually feels good to have one’s beliefs validated by others.

But, while it may feel good to be around people who think, look and behave like us, it is actually bad for business.  Why?

1. Confirmation bias makes employers and managers less likely to engage with information which challenges their views or employ people who offer different views and ideas. 
2. Even when exposed to information that challenges their beliefs, confirmation bias causes them to reject it and, perversely, become even more certain that their own beliefs are correct.  This is why companies like Blockbuster, Borders, Blackberry, Kodak, Pan Am, JC Penney, Sears, Tower Records, Compaq, MySpace, Polaroid and so many other others failed.  They refused to listen to employees, advisors and consultants that challenged their entrenched beliefs and suggested changes. 
3. Confirmation bias leads to flawed decision-making. All businesses are making critical decisions all the time. Their very success rests on those decisions and intelligent strategic planning.  That can’t happen if all the voices hired are affirming and confirming the leadership’s thoughts and ideas because management only hired people who validate the own thoughts and ideas.  After all, that’s what feels good.

The best way to keep Confirmation Bias from damaging a company long-term is by hiring people who think, look and believe differently than those doing the hiring.  The cure for Confirmation Bias is diversity.  But how does that happen if everyone suffers from Confirmation Bias and that seeps into the hiring process?  It seems like a catch-22. 

How to Overcome Confirmation Bias in Hiring

1. Start by building a diverse shortlist for every opening – Create a diverse shortlist of candidates, ensuring candidates fall into different categories.  This helps offset the impact of confirmation bias.  On a diverse shortlist, candidate categories can be based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, and other diversity-related groupings.  This helps a lot.  For example, a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that when there is only one woman in a candidate pool, there is statistically zero chance she’ll be hired.  But, if there are two female finalists in the hiring pool of candidates, the odds of hiring a woman were nearly 80 times greater than if there was only one. 

• Standardize the interview process – Having phone interviews for some, in-person interviews for others and pre-screenings tests only for certain candidates is a recipe for failure.  Make the interview process consistent for every candidate so that it has the same structure for each person.  Trying to keep the entire process the same and “blind” (no information that is visual or subjective – such as age, race, religion, etc.) is important.  If possible, have the hiring manager start building a rapport with each candidate without seeing them or discussing anything other than skills, training and experience.  During both the phone screening and in-person (or virtual) interviews, ask the same questions in the same order for each candidate.  Try to schedule all interviews around the same time each morning. 

• Keep a record of the interviews – Either take notes or record the interviews, if possible.  This helps with recalling the answers and not relying on memory when comparing candidates.

• Prepare interview scorecards – Use interview scorecards with a grading rubric to assess candidates and help with making comparisons. Interview scorecards with clear scoring criteria are an effective way to reduce Confirmation Bias.  Always score candidates immediately while memories are still fresh. 

• Involve multiple people in the interview process – Include multiple interviewers to ensure fair, unbiased judgments are made about each candidate. Consider creating an interview panel with various members of the team that are diverse in terms of age, gender, background, seniority level, and position at the organization.  Train interviewers on how to use the interview scorecards properly first.  Each interviewer should score a candidate before seeing other people’s evaluations to avoid confirmation bias.

Efforts to avoid confirmation bias in hiring pay dividends later by minimizing confirmation bias when the company looks to expand or change strategy.  A diverse team sets the stage for creativity, innovation, and the ability to spot challenges early.  And that is what ensures that companies not just survive but thrive.

Quote of the Week

“For serious, wise minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized.” Benjamin Haydon

© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.