Thinking about Thinking
With diversity and inclusion now being a thing that society is becoming increasingly aware of, the concept of unconscious bias is becoming more widely known.
Unconscious bias within the context of inclusion and diversity refers to how individuals can harbour unconsciously non inclusive beliefs which were imparted on them as they were growing up. These beliefs then shape the subtext of the way that they interact with the world.
The imparting is often done by parents, carers, friends, and family – basically people the child is socially exposed to impart their beliefs either directly or indirectly on to the child.
Examples of this are the definition of what a man and woman “should” do within the household, or, assumptions made about other people based on the colour of their skin.
This kind of bias stems from our beliefs which then underpin how we think about the world. This really though is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bias we are unconscious of.
How we Think vs. What we think about
Unconscious bias as we have described so far is fundamentally distorted beliefs; beliefs are in essence the “facts” we use to frame our thinking about the world. What we think about.
Within that frame we then need to colour in the image which forms our perception. We can refer to this process as how we think.
This process involves taking input from our environment and then using a combination of the frame along with other cognitive processes to form the image. Our perception.
The cognitive processes in our minds used are accessed unconsciously. These processes come baked in to our minds stemming from our genome and are part of what makes us human. The process of evolution (both physically and socially) has refined these processes in an attempt to be more performant and as such more efficient energetically for the mind.
Let’s explore this a little further…
Optimised for Performance
At any given moment, the environment around us provides us with billions of bits of sensory data. To capture this sense data, we use our senses such as sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. Each of these senses has a rate limit for how much data they can capture ranging from around ten million bits per second for sight down to around one thousand bits per second for taste.
The conscious human mind however, can only process around 128 bits per second.
This means that we both need to chose where to focus our senses (hence the expression we see what we choose to focus on) and also then need to filter down the data received by the senses to enable our consciousness to form our perception.
This is where cognitive bias comes in.
Cognitive bias is essentially a description of the preinstalled algorithms in the human mind which have evolved over time to make the process of cognition (perception forming) possible. Much like the process which drives the storing of unconscious bias (our beliefs) these algorithms are designed to make the process more efficient.
From studies, around 160 cognitive biases have been identified.
While arguably all humans hold all the algorithms, we each have our own “go to” biases that we may use more than others. It is also worth noting that the biases we use will more often than not be context specific.
Cognitive bias is designed to save time, but it does this my deleting and distorting the information received from our senses to then form our perception. As a result of this individualistic process, two people can receive the exact same sensory input but perceive it completely differently.
While this process happens unconsciously within the mind, it is possible for us to retrospectively examine what has occurred to develop an awareness of the processes and thus in the future influence what happens.
The act of observation changes the event.
Changing how we think
Metacognition is fundamentally thinking about thinking.
Cognitive bias is applied so rapidly within the process of cognition, it is difficult to catch it in the act. Instead, what we need to do it take time to reflect and evaluate our thinking processes after the event.
The first step to this is developing an awareness of what cognitive biases exist, then we know what we are looking for.
Once we have a basic understanding of the biases (some may jump out at us as being more relevant than others), then we can take time to analyse a particular event and how our thinking processes unfolded.
If you have ever had the feeling that the way you behaved was undesirable, but you can’t quite explain why you chose to behave that way – that is where you should start your search.
Once awareness is developed, you then have the ability to predict when a particular bias may manifest, this anticipation gives you’re the opportunity for you to interrupt your thinking processes and assert conscious control, thus being able to make a choice to modify, skip, or accept the biasing process.
The Bias Worksheet
Using information from this site https://gustdebacker.com/cognitive-biases/ I have put together a worksheet which can be used to evaluate how all the known cognitive biases manifest within our thinking.
I personally completed this work sheet over a period of months, taking 10-15 minutes a week to work though a particular area, before progressing to the next.
Here is a copy of the sheet:
It should be possible to print this document to A4 in landscape mode you so can hand write you notes, or for you more comfortable with digital, just crack on and fill it in.
For me it was important to not rush the process so that in between each review session, I could take time to reflect further on how the small section I had reviewed manifested for me.
It is a big old list, but there is no rush to cover it quickly.
Useful Application
It is worth remembering that cognitive biases exist for a reason. They are essential for us to be able to perceive and understand the world. This is not and exercise about getting id of them, but one to build awareness so we can consciously choose to modify how they are applied to our advantage.
Here are some questions for you to consider about each bias:
- How does each bias manifest for me?
- Is it a positive thing?
- Is it a negative thing?
- Am I neutral about it?
- Now that I am aware, what can I choose to do differently to either maximise or negate the effect?
- How do other people or companies use this trait to exploit me?
- Can I use this to leverage myself by building motivation or positively shaping my perception?
- Can I use this to refine how I positively influence other people?
Having a knowledge of these biases is powerful and it enables us to take full control of our thinking. This means we are then less prone to people exploiting these thinking patterns within us, but even more than that, we can use them to positively influence ourselves and the world around us.
Enjoy, for now.