Bias and the consequences of snap judgement

Bias and the consequences of snap judgement

We mere mortals function with brains evolved for survival. Or so we are told.

But how else to explain why we so often “judge a book by its cover”? Our instinctive biases seem to slip into giant prejudices at the drop of a hat.

Consider how swiftly assumptions arise: someone whose favourite meal is lettuce, alfalfa, nuts, feta, and tofu might instantly be labelled a “greenie” or worse, presumed to be a woman. Or think of the stereotype attached to a person driving a black SUV, who favours munching bloody beef, Texas-style sauce, drinking whiskey and puffing on cigars – perhaps assumed to be a selfish driver on the road, “politically red-neck,” likely a bloke.

I recall with some embarrassment my initial assumptions during the first visit of a company’s chief executive and their assistant to my office years ago. In the reception area stood a tall, older man in a dark suit, immaculate and poised, beside a younger woman in a floral dress, modest and unadorned.

Having greeted the pair, we moved to a meeting room. It was the woman who sat directly opposite me and took command of the conversation while the older man drew a pen and pad from his pocket to take notes.

I was grateful my oafish presumptions – such as wondering aloud what the woman thought of working for “Mr Travers” – remained unsaid. In listening to the chief executive, I chided myself for my hasty judgements, imagining my guests internally amused by an all-too-common scenario.

There is some solace in recognising that we all carry conscious or unconscious biases – perhaps evolutionary by design. For early humans, identifying a large, fanged animal as dangerous, or a small, wide-eyed creature as harmless, could be a matter of survival.

Think of bias like a website cache: a technical trick that speeds up loading by storing previous content. While this makes for faster access, it also means new information is slower to appear. Similarly, our brains rely on quick judgements formed from past experiences, but no doubt this can also hinder our ability to adapt to new realities.

Taking this analogy, maybe our ancient survival instincts allow us to make snap judgements, but it’s perhaps a lot less helpful in our twenty-first century world where life and death situations are not exactly daily occurrences.

Yet, evolution from the cave persists so that we can be inclined to rush our judgements – we dislike a neighbour for 30 years just because on the first meeting he wore a dirty gardening shirt, or the wrong person was appointed to a job because the best candidate had a strong Middle Eastern accent.

As another evolutionary trait, we humans also possess a highly developed brain – the capacity for observation and reason. For example, what should we make of those small black and red berries which, at first glance, look poisonous and will kill you if too many are swallowed? On the other hand, a little scientific testing can tell us they are actually highly nutritious and very edible?

The irony is that in today’s high information digital world, algorithms often confine us to echo chambers where rushed judgements and simple biases can solidify even more into outright prejudice, with “othering” becoming a source of identity for many.

Now, as we navigate a world increasingly shaped by instantaneous AI-driven answers, perhaps our greatest asset is a willingness to slow down. For all our ingrained biases and reflexive judgements, taking a moment to think critically can be the difference between a gross error, or a greater understanding.