Our unconscious mind uses embedded, unconscious beliefs formed from our cultural environment and personal experiences to make immediate decisions about everything around us. It makes the equation easier to process: if a ball and bat together cost $1.10 and the bat costs $1.00, then the ball must cost 10 cents. If you answered 10 cents to the example above, your mind took a shortcut by unconsciously substituting the “more than” statement in the problem (the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball) with an “absolute” statement – the bat costs $1.00. The correct answer to this problem is that the ball costs five cents and the bat costs (at $1.00 more) $1.05, for a grand total of $1.10. If the ball costs 10 cents and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, then the bat would cost $1.10 for a grand total of $1.20 for the bat and the ball. Although this response intuitively comes to mind, it is incorrect. How much does the ball cost?ĭid you answer 10 cents? Most people do. See if you can answer this riddle: A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. While these shortcuts may save time, an unconscious bias is a systematic thinking error that can cloud our judgment, and as a result, impact our decisions.
This saves time when making decisions, which is especially helpful when we’re under pressure and need to meet deadlines.
Unconscious bias – also known as cognitive bias – refers to how our mind can take shortcuts when processing information. To save us from becoming overwhelmed, our brains have a natural tendency to take shortcuts. Evaluating evidence (especially when it is complex or ambiguous) requires a great deal of mental energy. As many researchers have explained, our minds are ill-equipped to handle the modern world’s decision-making demands. In our modern world, we are constantly receiving new information and have to make numerous complicated choices each day. Decisions were based on the need for survival. What is unconscious bias?įor most of human history, people experienced very little new information during their lifetimes.
The more perspectives and strategies you have to choose from, the more likely it is you will make the best decisions for your team and organization as a whole.īut a powerful, yet subtle obstacle can stand in the way of open-mindedness in leadership: unconscious bias. It’s equally important to be open to alternatives not previously considered. As a leader, it’s important to look for and process a broad range of information from many perspectives.
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