3 Common Decision-Making Biases That Inhibit Problem Solving

Confirmation bias

Favouring information that confirms our existing beliefs. For example, during an election, people tend to seek out positive information that puts their favoured candidate in a good light. The media use this to their advantage all the time. They provide compelling points to encourage us to formulate an opinion. Any other evidence that might contradict this is usually undermined, or not reported.

Recency bias

This is when we place greater importance on information that we’ve recently acquired. A classic example of this is financial traders looking at only the most recent events whilst disregarding older pieces of information which are equally important (and sometimes more important).

Framing bias

This concerns how we are influenced by the way information is presented, as opposed to the information itself. For example, a yoghurt could be labelled as 90% fat free or, alternatively, as containing 10% fat. Similarly, a burger could be ‘framed’ as being 75% fat free as opposed to being labelled as containing 25% fat. Which of those options sounds the most appealing?