The Causes and Effects of Judgmental Distortions and Bias and Awareness of Common Traps

The Causes and Effects of Judgmental Distortions and Bias
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The Causes and Effects of Judgmental Distortions and Bias
Decision-making is a critical part of life. Often, people need to decide on issues and bear with the consequences. In the business world, decisions are made daily. Such judgments affect an entity's operations and determine its success or failure. For instance, a business may be thinking of expanding into a new market. Before making a move, the management may need to know whether or not that is a viable move. This means gathering all the necessary information, analyzing it, and making a judgment regarding the best possible move. Even at an individual level, people constantly make decisions regarding their day-to-day activities. Without sound judgment, the outcome can be devastating. In today's chaotic and uncertain world, greatness depends on individuals' choices rather than by chance (Collins & Hansen, 2011). Surprisingly, a majority of human decisions are clouded by bias and irrationality. Hence, there is no guarantee that human judgment will be free of bias. In as much as people may feel their judgment is fair, distortions and biases are common. This research delves into causes and effects of judgmental distortions and bias with the aim of helping individuals remain aware of the common traps and hence averting a decision failure.
The Meaning of Judgment
Judgment implies the capability to determine what should be undertaken after carefully considering an issue. In many cases, individuals are inclined to believe that good decisions result from sufficient information (Siebert et al., 2021). In this case, some individuals research for facts and analyze the available data to establish the best course of action. In the modern world, the advancement of technology has allowed humans to use machines to analyze data. More than before, people can collect more data and analyze it to determine the best approach to an issue. The availability of data and analytical tools has made it easier for individuals to make critical decisions (Kavale, 2012). However, it is vital to acknowledge that humans eventually decide which information to consider, and human fallibility impacts their choices. This is because decision-making is essentially a cognitive process, and hence human tendencies play a critical part in the whole process (Alvino & Franco, 2017). Since it is a product of thinking, decision-making could be rational or irrational.
Common Types of Biases
It is essential to know the various biases and errors affecting judgment. These cognitive biases and errors fall into various major categories. The first type is confirmation bias, which implies listening more to the information that affirms the already existing beliefs (Peters, 2020). Because of this bias, individuals favor information that agrees with what they already know. For instance, someone can choose to believe information from news sources supporting their views while ignoring news sources that disagree with their position. Since the bias causes people to reinforce their existing beliefs, it prevents them from integrating different viewpoints to decide (Peters, 2020). Such people use limited mental resources when making judgments. The ultimate aim is to alter reality to make oneself comfortable. This leads to poor choices because of the inability to consider the opposing viewpoints.
Another bias that limits decision-making is the anchoring bias. It tends to fix a mind on the initial information and refuses to incorporate any additional information collected in the process (Lieder et al., 2018). After setting an anchor, the other judgments are made by considering the anchor without minding other essential aspects that may come up in the process. For instance, doctors can anchor a diagnostic assessment on a patient's first impression. Such physicians will decide based on the first information they received from the patient, without accommodating subsequent changes that may follow suit. A candidate can ask for $50,000 for a starting salary. If the business is unwilling to offer such an amount, the interviewer's ability to ignore that figure is compromised. Hence, the panel may dismiss the candidate without probing whether they can take a lower starting salary.
The other common bias is the hallo effect. It implies the ability of the first impression of an individual to influence how one thinks about them (Sordi & Meireles, 2020). For instance, there is a tendency to think that good-looking people are also more intelligent than less attractive people. In such a case, when attractive people market a product, one can be biased to think that the product is of more value. The same initial perception is extended into other areas, where if individuals perform well in a particular area, they will automatically do well in other tasks.
The last bias examined here is the availability heuristic. It implies the tendency to estimate the probability of something taking place based on the readily available examples in mind (Nazlan et al., 2018). For example, if news reports indicate burglary cases in the neighborhood, one may think that such cases are more common. Because of this bias, individuals often arrive at poor estimates and wrong decisions (Nazlan et al., 2018). For instance, smokers who do not know anyone who has died due to smoking-related sickness might underestimate the health risks associated with the habit. On the contrary, if the same smokers know chain smokers who have died recently, say because of lung cancer, they are likely to believe that the problem is severe and reconsider quitting smoking.
Minimizing Biases of Decision-Making Processes
The first way of min...