Types of unconscious bias

- [Muazma] Understanding different types of bias is the first step to managing it. There are more than 180 different types of unconscious bias that exist. Let's look at a few common examples and identify different types of unconscious bias. In a hiring setting, there is a higher chance you will favor someone similar to you in a choice between two people. This is affinity bias. This bias refers to our tendency to gravitate toward people similar to ourselves. By building a product during user research, we ignore user pain points if they don't fit our existing assumptions, this is confirmation bias. Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to look for or favor information that confirms beliefs we already hold. After learning something impressive about someone, we tend to put them on a pedestal or think more highly of them. This is halo effect. On the contrary, perceiving someone negatively after learning something unfavorable about them, This is horns effect. Both of these biases can have an influence on how we view people and their actions in the future. And other common bias is judging people based on how attractive you think they are. This is called beauty bias. People perceived as attractive can be viewed more positively and treated more favorably . Another typeof bias is prevalent in group settings, similar to group think. This is called conformity bias, and it means that your views are swayed or influenced by others' opinions. When we do something well we tend to think it's down to our merit and personality. When we do something wrong, we tend to believe that our failure is due to external factors. Like other people that adversely affected us and prevented us from doing our best. When it comes to other people we tend to think the opposite. If someone else has done something well we consider them lucky. And if they've done something wrong, we tend to think it's due to their personality or bad behavior. This is attribution bias. This is the most common form of bias in the recruitment process. People frequently make attributions regarding the cause of their own and others' behaviors. However, attributions don't always accurately reflect reality. We have a tendency to rely more or anchor our thinking to the first thing that we hear, this is anchoring bias. From that point on we give less importance to what comes next. Another common one is stereotyping and preferring one gender over another. And assuming that one gender is better than any way. This is gender bias, very common in all walks of life. We are more likely to trust and be influenced by the ideas that come from an authority figure. This is authority bias. This is common in the workplace. It takes a deliberate effort to act to disrupt our biases. When making choices, practicing awareness and recognizing our own implicit biases will help us reconsider our actions.