Page 52 - engage workbook

Confirmation bias

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
Richard H. Thaler, Nobel Prize Laureate, 2017
Author of Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics

Did you listen to the
radio discussion on
how to adapt to the
challenging business Yes, I thought the
environment?
second speaker
spoke a lot of good
sense, I agreed with
everything she said.

Confirmation bias is our tendency to process new information in a way that fits our pre-
existing view of a topic or situation.

In a business setting, it is that thought that says “Oh yes, I’ve seen something like this
before and this is what happened...”. At that point we tend to stop listening because we
know how things turn out. In extreme cases, we might even be tempted to interrupt and
complete the other person’s thinking for them!

Our tendency to fit what we hear into our existing thought patterns can discourage the
flow of new ideas, and be interpreted as impolite (not listening and interrupting) and
arrogant (prematurely giving advice or making recommendations).

More subtly, even if we have no pre-existing confirmation bias, simply putting forward our
ideas in a conversation will normally cause us to view the remainder of the conversation
from the perspective of our stated view. This can mean we miss the wider picture, and
miss opportunities to uncover value.

What you can do

• Use a variety of questions to explore any situation. See section 8 – SHAPE Questioning.

• Search out alternative ideas, and try to see things in the context of the wider picture.
See section 11 – Levels of Thinking and section 12 – Spicy Questions.

• Welcome new information that challenges your existing views.

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