Facts, Assumptions, and Values: Managing Unconscious Bias
By B. Kim Barnes, Barnes & Conti CEO, and Nelson Soken, Ph.D, Barnes & Conti Chief Innovation Officer
Reprinted from LinkedIn, June 1, 2016. We are sharing it in this update because unconscious bias is especially relevant to us today.
There are many variations of the following quote, first attributed to Bernard Baruch. “You have the right to your own opinion, but you don’t have the right to your own facts.” The reality is, though, that there are enough facts for people to pick and choose the ones that support their preferred conclusion.
We like to think of ourselves as a rational species – but recent evidence from behavioral science research suggests otherwise. We tend to seek information that supports our views and disregard facts that are counter to our belief systems. This is known as the confirmation bias, and explains why people with conservative political views watch and read conservative media sources and liberals watch and read liberal sources. We hold fast to ideas…