What Is Heuristic Bias?

Heuristic bias refers to a mental shortcut that individuals may unknowingly take when evaluating a topic or decision that relies on immediate examples that may come to mind. It occurs because of the systematic errors or cognitive shortcuts that people rely on when making decisions or judgments which result in errors, inaccuracies, or negative outcomes.

How does heuristic bias impact the workplace?

In the workplace, heuristic bias can come into play in a variety of ways, such as:

• In hiring decisions. In hiring, both the halo effect (generalizing positive traits) and the horns effect (generalizing negative traits) can lead to favoritism for certain candidates and negative impressions of others that are not rooted in fact.

• In performance evaluations. During performance evaluations, managers may give more weight to recent events (the recency effect), whether positive or negative. This results in overlooking long-term trends or improvements and leads to inaccurate assessments of employee performance.

• In decision-making. Heuristic biases like Groupthink (favoring consensus over critical thinking) can impact team dynamics by hindering creative problem-solving, stifling dissenting opinions, and discouraging creative ideas.

Recognizing the potential for heuristic bias in the workplace, can help organizations, HR departments, and other leaders take steps to minimize these impacts.

Minimizing the impacts of heuristic bias

There are steps that organizations can take to minimize the negative impacts of heuristic bias, including: 

• Educating employees about heuristic bias, the various way it can be exhibited, and its potential impact on decision-making

• Evaluate their decision-making processes to identify critical points where biases are likely to emerge

• Seeking and listening to diverse perspectives and inputs 

• Regularly reviewing decisions and their outcomes to identify potential biases

It’s important to look for patterns, discrepancies or unintended consequences that may indicate the presence of heuristic bias. 

How technology can help minimize heuristic bias

Implementing data-driven decision-making processes that rely on objective measures whenever possible is an important way to minimize the impacts of heuristic bias. Using metrics, feedback, and performance data can help reduce reliance on subjective judgments. 

Read more on heuristic bias:     

• 3 Ways to Neutralize AI Bias in Recruiting

• What Is Affinity Bias?

• Tackle Affinity Bias With These 3 Steps