Blind Spot Bias

Blind Spot Bias

Recall Time

Think about the time/ situation/ scenario when you assumed you acted in a more fair and balanced manner compared to others, only to discover later that you were found wanting in being rational in your approach to the situation !

Remember the time(s) when people accused you of playing favourites whereas you thought on the contrary and assumed that others' played favourites !

In fact, there will be plenty of such instances, stored in our memories, where we tended to assume that others play irrational in their judgement and not us. In fact, all these examples are indicators of a bias known as "Blind Spot". Let's discuss about the bias in more detail

Definition 

Blind Spot is a cognitive bias where we perceive existence of cognitive biases in others and not in ourselves; a phenomenon where people are less likely to detect bias in themselves than others. In the presence of this bias, the person lives with the impression of being fair/ rational in their judgement as compared with others. 

Blind spot bias was created by Emily Pronin, a social psychologist at Princeton University and studies have revealed that everyone is affected by blind spot bias. Also, the bias is unrelated to intelligence, self-esteem and our actual ability to make unbiased judgement and take rational decisions. 

How/ Why This Bias Occurs ?

One of the key reasons for the occurence of this bias is the concept of "Introspective Illusion", which suggests that people think they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states while treating others' introspections as unreliable. Simply put, a person living with this illusion feels aware of the "how" and "why" of decision making and therefore is rational in making judgements and taking decisions. And when we talk about facts, the reality is that the act of decision making is 99.9% an unconscious process which means that many of the mental processes associated with decision making are unconscious and people do not become aware of what is affecting their choices.

Another reason stems from our desire to see ourself as a rational decision make and that's how we tend to believe that since we have direct access to our own private thoughts we will always be rational in our decision making but when it is about others, we tend to infer their thoughts in an overt manner i.e. through their behaviour and hence not sure about rationality in their decision making.

Impact of Blind Spot Bias

• People with high "blind spot" bias are more likely to ignore the advice of peers or experts and hence less likely to improvise. This bias affects judgements and behaviours to such an extent that the person is unable to accurately judge whether the advice being provided is useful or not.
• Inability to see our own bias 
• Overrate our rationality/ impartiality
• Ineffective in relating to the world and other people

Overcoming/ Addressing Blind Spot Bias

What do we do in a situation while driving, when we narrowly miss colliding with another vehicle, even though the vehicle was very much in our peripheral view but still we missed seeing it somehow ? - Well, the solution/ answer to this is pretty simple and straightforward - we go and install a blind spot mirror. 

Likewise, we need to install or develop the following to address the blind spot bias in our judgement and decision making

• First and foremost, recognising and becoming aware of the bias in ourself
• Performing SWOT to help identify weaknesses
• Building multiple perspective to the situations. Using tools like Devil's Advocate and Six Thinking Hats could help achieve the objective
• Developing Effective Listening and seek feedback from others to identify and correct gaps in our judgement and decision making
• Developing Emotional Intelligence which helps develop the ability of self-awareness

So, always be clear and aware if you wish to be fair !