Introduction
Biases are common in social science researches. It has the potential to incline the outcome of a social science research, in a wrong direction. People often ignore or are oblivious about their human biases. The biases may be in terms of people’s perception of other people and the societal makeup. Biases are deep rooted in human beings and pertain to one’s personality, ideologies and values. Identifying them is a difficult but attainable task. Parents, friends, family and self-evaluation of life experiences can be helpful in identifying these deep seated biases in the human mind. The objective of this paper is to help me identify my biases, discuss why I believe in them, explain the consequences of these biases and how to avoid future errors.
Identifying Biases and Why I Believe Each Bias
Being human, I too suffer from biases. The four main biases I suffer from are anchoring, overconfidence effect, confirmation bias and normalcy bias.
Anchoring
It is a form of bias that occurs when higher importance is given to a particular event or piece of information as compared to the rest. This human tendency leads to erroneous conclusions in a social science research. prediction of outcomes, which leads to predictability errors. It was more through experience that I got to learn about this bias of mine. I have observed this many a times that I attach greater significance to one bit of information and base my decisions on it. Later I repent for not factoring in all the probabilities while making decisions.
Overconfidence Effect
Overconfidence effect is being overconfident about knowing the correct answer. My best friend made me realise this bias of mine. She sensitized me about my tendency to reply confidently even when I am not sure of the answer. She pin points incidences in the class when I display the overconfidence effect.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is having a tunnel approach to analysing information in such a way that it confirms pre-existing notions about something. I gradually became aware of this phenomenon through experiences in my life. I have realised that while attempting to find the answer of a research question for a class assignment, I conduct a thorough research but my conclusion is often pre-determined. I am aware that I have a tendency to reach a conclusion and then search for supporting information. My assignment partners have also highlighted this issue to me.
Normalcy Bias
Normalcy bias is a bias prevents us to plan for negative events that have not happened before. My mother made me realise this bias of mine. She is a good planner and always plans things in advance. I tend to counter her saying it cannot happen, it has never happened before. She will simply reply, “Never say never”.
Consequence of Biases
It is important to learn about human biases as they lead to negative consequences. Each of my biases has the potential to impact me and people near me.
The problem with anchoring is that it leads to inaccurate judgement. So, I may tend to make decisions about my friends which are inaccurate. I may fail to judge them. Once I heard a rumour about one of close friends. I mistook it to be true. My friend tried explaining the situation to me, but I was not receptive at all. Thus, my bias ruined our friendship.
Overconfidence effect has hurt be significantly during my exams. Some multiple choice questions in exam have negative marking. My accuracy percentage is often low and I end up scoring negative marks in many questions. It has the potential of causing increased road accidents.
The issue with confirmation bias is that it encourages our preconceived notions. Thus, it directs me towards my stereotypes and other notions or associations. Many times I have not been able to identify the real answer to my research question due to this bias. My assignment group has faced consequences because of this.
My family is quite upset about my normalcy bias. I have a tendency to ignore possible negative consequences, just because they have never happened. I am a poor contingency planner because of this bias.
Addressing Biases
Being aware about my biases is the first step towards addressing it. To avoid anchoring bias, I will need to undergo a lengthy process of weighing my options in an impartial way before reaching a conclusion. Since I know that I am suffering from an overconfidence bias, I can address it by asking people to promptly provide counter argument to any reply or conclusion I have made. According to the business owner (2012), asking others to ‘poke holes’ if an effective solution to the problem of overconfidence bias. Confirmation bias can be addressed by testing my preconceived notions. Normalcy bias can be addressed my running past my suggested plan by a friend of mine, informing him about the possibility of a normalcy bias. Thus, a sincere and conscious effort towards addressing biases would be effective to contain these biases at low impact levels.
References
The Business Owner (2012). Know and Avoid Common Decision-making Mistakes. Retrieved from http://www.thebusinessowner.com/business-guidance/professional-development/2010/01/know-and-avoid-common-decision-making-mistakes
