Beauty Bias is the Beast

It is the most natural thing in the world to be drawn to beauty.   And, as it turns out, what constitutes beauty in humans is fairly universal.  There is a high level of agreement regarding facial features that people like within and across cultures.  A study conducted of White Scottish people and Black South African people showed significant agreement of who they considered “good looking”, both within and across cultures.  And similar studies have confirmed their findings many times.  Indeed, there appears to be a universality of beauty standards.  How a person looks matters.  That explains why the beauty care industry is exploding with global sales projected to be $534B for 2022. 

The Problems Created by Knowledge Bias and Overconfidence Bias

Most people think they know more than they actually do and, as a result, become overconfident.  How do we know that?  Because, when put to the test, most people who think they have a solid understanding of simple things can’t actually explain the workings of everyday things… things they believe they fully understand.  For example, how does a refrigerator work? Or cell phone.  Zipper.  Sewing machine.  Crossbow.   Fountain pen.  Calculator.  Light bulb.   Most people think they know how these things work.  But when asked to explain it, they can’t.   This was discovered by Yale University researchers Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil, who conducted a series of studies asking hundreds of random people if they understood how a refrigerator (and other common things) works.  Rozenblit and Keil reported their findings in a paper titled “The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth” published in Cognitive Science in September 2002. 

Horn Effect Bias Taints Qualified Candidates

Humans have so many biases; the ones that we reluctantly admit to having and the unconscious ones that are hidden even from ourselves.  These hidden ones are unconscious biases that we don’t even know exist.  And, even when we’re made aware of them, we have great trouble overcoming them.  But it is important to minimize the impact of biases.  Nothing good comes from bias because biases distort reality and hide the truth. 

When a Halo is a Bad Thing

We all know that it is not good to be biased, especially when it comes to things like race, gender and religion.  But beyond the conscious biases, there are a host of unconscious biases that influence our thoughts and affect our behavior.  Everyone has them because they serve as mental shortcuts to help us make decisions.  But, what they also often do is cloud our judgment.  These hidden biases make it harder to discern fact from fiction and truth from tales.  We misjudge based on assumptions, often ignoring anything that doesn’t fit with the perception.  We are led astray and we jump to conclusions.  This happens a lot.  And, what leads us astray can vary. 

Expectation Anchor Bias – Don’t Let a First Impression have the Last Word

You are biased.  Yes, you are.  Even if you grew up in a family where diversity and inclusion were part of your basic values.  Even if you have actively supported organizations and causes that advocate for justice and fair treatment for all people.  Even if you reject all forms of prejudice and discrimination.  You are still biased.  It’s just how your brain works.  And it’s not just you.  It’s all of us.  Everyone.  We all have biases, most of which are unconscious biases that the brain uses as shortcuts to make fast decisions.  There are over 200 unconscious biases.  Some are more impactful than others.  But all biases share one common problem.  Bias distorts truth.  Bias makes you more inclined to process information and make decisions based on distortions and conclusions that are false.   Obviously, decisions based on false information can cause problems.  But this is especially true in business, where clarity and accuracy are key to the decision-making process. 

Affect Heuristics Bias – When Emotions Lead the Way

In the workplace, unconscious biases — the ones we have but don’t know we have because they are hidden and automatic — sway a great many policies including hiring practices.   We have many of these.  One such unconscious bias is Affect Heuristics Bias.  Like most unconscious biases, this is a type of mental shortcut.  In this shortcut, decisions are heavily influenced by a person’s current emotions. 

In Affect Heuristics Bias, a person’s affect – which is a psychological term for emotional response — plays a critical role in the choices and decisions made.  (Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently. These rule-of-thumb strategies shorten decision-making time and allow people to function without constantly stopping to think about their next course of action.)  Rather than make decisions solely on concrete, factual information, logic and reason, people will make quick decisions based on their emotions.  While this allows them to reach a conclusion quickly and easily, it can also distort the thinking process and lead to suboptimal choices and decisions.

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.

In business, bias is the four-letter word that is truly offensive.  By definition, bias implies prejudice that is in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.  It is just plain bad business to demonstrate bias in company policies or practices, whether it involves customers or employees.  And, thankfully, most companies in the U.S. actively discourage bias. 

However, there is conscious bias (the intentional kind) and unconscious bias (the unintentional kind of which most people are unaware).  Unconscious bias is an unrecognized mental process tied to cognitive heuristics and how the human brain processes information.  So basically, anyone with a brain has biases.  It is part of how the human brain works.  The brain uses bias as a way to keep us safe and as a tool to process the onslaught of information we process at any given time.  

There is so much talk about achieving and maintaining balance in life.  And it sounds like something that should be easy to achieve.  Just find and stick to the middle.  But even in fairytales, we see that balance is elusive.  In Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks was looking for food and a place to rest.  But in the bears’ home, some of the porridge was too hot.  Some was too cold.  Only one was just right.  The same was true of the chair to sit in (too big and too small) and the bed to nap (too hard and too soft).  It seems that extremes are everywhere.  This could be a metaphor for life.  Too much and too little are not good.  The goal is to find the middle of the road which is where we find what is just right.

People have a tendency to go to extremes in their pursuits.  If a little is good, more is better.  Or if a little is difficult, then the least possible is best.  Eating ranges from anorexia to obesity.  Exercise ranges from indolence to Olympic athlete.  Work ranges from laziness to workaholic.  Sleep ranges from insomnia to narcolepsy.  Imbibing ranges from teetotaler to alcoholic.  Political activism ranges from apathy to radical extremist.  Even career pursuits range from abject failure to massive success.  And people tend to gravitate toward one end of the spectrum or the other in most behaviors.  And, sometimes they go from one end of the spectrum to the other.