Common Types of Biases at Work

Affinities and Double Standards

In team management, certain biases distort our perception of people.

Affinity bias is one of the most common; it occurs when we feel an instant and preferential connection to someone who looks like us, either because they studied at our same school, share a sports hobby or come from the same town.

Imagine a recruiter who unconsciously favors one candidate simply because they both enjoy mountaineering, ignoring that another applicant has better technical qualifications but different hobbies.

On the other hand, attribution bias generates an unfair interpretation of behaviors depending on who performs them.

We tend to judge dominant groups by their intentions or context, while we judge minorities by their character.

If a male leader bangs the table in a meeting, he may be perceived as "passionate" or "assertive"; if a female colleague does the exact same thing, she is likely to be labeled as "emotional," "hysterical," or "out of control."

Likewise, performance bias creates an invisible barrier: men are often promoted based on their potential ("I think he'll be good at this"), while women are required to have demonstrated prior, proven results before being considered for promotion.

Information Filters and Stereotypes

Our mind also filters reality to protect our prior beliefs. Confirmation bias leads us to seek out and value only that information that supports what we already think, discarding what contradicts us.

For example, if a supervisor believes that young employees are irresponsible, he will pay inordinate attention to the five minutes that one of them was late, ignoring the fact that the same employee worked two hours overtime the day before.

Add to this the negativity bias, our natural tendency to remember negative events more strongly than positive ones.

An employee may have a year of impeccable performance, but if he made a visible mistake in a presentation months ago, that failure will weigh disproportionately on his annual evaluation, overshadowing his accomplishments.

Finally, stereotype bias pigeonholes people into predefined roles: assuming that the woman on the team should be in charge of organizing the birthday party or taking the meeting notes simply because of her gender, rather than her professional role.

Summary

Affinity bias makes us unconsciously prefer those who are similar to us, ignoring better qualifications. Attribution bias judges differently depending on the group: an assertive man is perceived as passionate, while an equally assertive woman is labeled as emotional.

The performance bias promotes men based on their future potential, while women are required to prove previous results. In addition, confirmation bias leads us to value only information that supports our pre-existing beliefs.

Negativity bias causes a single mistake to overshadow an entire year of flawless performance. Finally, stereotyping pigeonholes people into predefined roles, assuming for example that women should take notes or serve coffee regardless of their position.