25 Examples of Unconscious Biases and How to Avoid Them
Bradford R. GlaserUnconscious biases are mental shortcuts people use to process information faster – essentially, learned attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously influence how we think and act. As we grow older and accumulate more life experiences, we continue to develop unconscious (or implicit) biases.
These biases can encompass assessments of all kinds– both positive and negative. Because they are unconscious, we aren't intentionally making these assumptions and aren't even aware that we are.
Unconscious biases can significantly impact every aspect of an organization– the hiring process, how business decisions are made, and the day-to-day operations and interactions of a company.
For many types of unconscious bias, a valuable first step is to become aware of it. Since they are unconscious, an individual typically doesn't have conscious knowledge that their attitudes and beliefs might be impacted by implicit assumptions. Here are examples of common biases.
- Understand the origins of implicit bias
- Know how to address implicit bias
- Ensure decisions are equitable
Table of Contents
- 1. Ageism
- 2. Gender Bias
- 3. Name Bias
- 4. Horns Effect
- 5. Halo Effect
- 6. Conformity Bias
- 7. Confirmation Bias
- 8. Contrast Effect
- 9. Affinity Bias
- 10. Authority Bias
- 11. Anchor Bias
- 12. Attribution Bias
- 13. Status Quo Bias
- 14. Beauty Bias
- 15. Height Bias
- 16. Weight Bias
- 17. Hair Color Bias
- 18. Culture Bias
- 19. Idiosyncratic Rater Bias
- 20. Nonverbal Bias
- 21. Overconfidence Bias
- 22. Illusory Correlation
- 23. Perception Bias
- 24. Recency Bias
- 25. Affect Heuristic
- Dealing With Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
1. Ageism
Ageism refers to prejudice or discrimination against a person based on their age. This bias can be a prevalent issue in many workplaces, even though workers who are 40 or older are protected from discrimination in the workplace under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
How to avoid it: To prevent ageism, it's essential to engage older team members and foster cross-generational collaboration. You'll also want to work to avoid making assumptions about a person's skills or abilities based on their age.
2. Gender Bias
Gender bias is when a person favors one gender over another by associating specific stereotypes with each gender. This type of unconscious bias can affect relationship dynamics within an organization and its recruitment practices.
How to avoid it: You can do several things to help ensure that gender bias isn't present in your workplace, including setting gender-neutral recruiting standards and providing resources to underrepresented groups in leadership roles.
3. Name Bias
Name bias refers to the unconscious tendency to favor certain names over others. This bias can be a problem in the recruitment process, as the type of name a person has can influence whether they are offered interviews.
How to avoid it: One way companies avoid name bias in hiring is to omit candidates' names during the applicant screening process. That can be done with blind hiring software or manually by a team member.
4. Horns Effect
The "horns effect" is a phenomenon in which one trait or experience with another person can lead us to form a negative impression of them.
How to avoid it: By getting to know people beyond first impressions and making judgments only on evidence, you can work to combat the horn effect.
5. Halo Effect
The opposite of the horns effect, the halo effect is when one positive trait or quality of a person leads us to have an overall positive view of them.
How to avoid it: Rather than putting someone on a pedestal because they have one notable positive trait or performed well in one interview, consider conducting multiple interviews so each applicant can be viewed from multiple angles. Incorporating other team members into the interview process can also be helpful.
6. Conformity Bias
Conformity bias occurs when we alter our behaviors or opinions to match those of the larger group, even when this change doesn't actually reflect our own opinions. This can be an issue in the workplace, as it can limit diversity of opinion, creativity, and open discussion.
How to avoid it: Conduct private meetings with team members before meetings to gather their opinions, so they are not unconsciously influenced by the group's larger opinion. You can also use anonymous surveys to gather feedback and ensure you get your team's honest views.
7. Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias occurs when a person holds a view or expectation and then seeks out information that confirms it.
How to avoid it: In the recruitment process, you can avoid confirmation bias by standardizing interview questions. As part of your regular business practices, it's important to use multiple sources whenever you are trying to answer a vital question or conduct research.
8. Contrast Effect
Contrast effects can lead us to perceive things as either better or worse than usual when there is something to compare them to.
How to avoid it: Making comparisons is a common way people make judgments, but it's a good idea to make multiple comparisons rather than just one when forming a conclusion.
9. Affinity Bias
Also known as the similarity bias, this tendency is to prefer people with experiences, backgrounds, and interests similar to your own.
How to avoid it: To prevent affinity bias in hiring, a diverse recruitment panel can help ensure that one person's similarity bias doesn't overwhelmingly impact hiring decisions.
10. Authority Bias
Authority bias is the tendency to trust and follow authority figures without critically evaluating their beliefs and instructions.
How to avoid it: Thinking critically, regardless of the source, is a powerful antidote to authority bias. Doing your research and asking questions can help ensure you aren't falling prey to this type of unconscious bias.
To ensure decisions are made without authority bias or other unconscious biases, consider enrolling in our Critical Thinking Skills course.
11. Anchor Bias
When we rely on the first piece of information we receive about a topic to make a decision, at the expense of other valuable knowledge, we are guilty of anchor bias.
How to avoid it: You can work to avoid anchor bias by ensuring that you are conducting thorough research and bringing in outside perspectives from your team when making a decision.
12. Attribution Bias
Attribution bias is the tendency to attribute a person's behavior to their character rather than to situational factors. In short, this means we underestimate the role of a person's individual circumstances in how they act and overestimate the role of their personality traits.
How to avoid it: To avoid attribution bias in the workplace, try to focus on situational or circumstantial factors rather than making assumptions about a person's character or personality influencing their actions.
13. Status Quo Bias
People tend to be resistant to change and have an affinity for keeping things the way they currently are. Though this can require less effort and feel less risky, becoming stagnant means that a company isn't innovating and growing.
How to avoid it: Encouraging innovation, creativity, and outside-the-box thinking can help to avoid status quo bias in the workplace.
14. Beauty Bias
People who are considered more attractive can receive more favorable treatment than those considered less attractive. That can result in discrimination based on how a person looks rather than their skills, experience, or other relevant traits.
How to avoid it: Two tactics you can try to prevent beauty bias in the hiring process are to hold brief phone interviews before having an in-person interview and to omit photographs from resumes.
15. Height Bias
This type of unconscious bias occurs when an individual judges another person based on their height, typically when the other person is significantly taller or shorter than average.
How to avoid it: Becoming aware of one's own tendency to make assumptions about people based on their height is an essential first step. In hiring, initial phone interviews can help ensure you focus on a candidate's abilities rather than their appearance.
16. Weight Bias
People can also be unconsciously biased toward other people based on their weight. This bias can impact both men and women and people of all backgrounds.
How to avoid it: Similarly to height bias, you can work to ensure that you aren't positively or negatively responding to a candidate because of their weight, but instead due to their ability to perform a specific role.
17. Hair Color Bias
Unconscious bias can even rear its ugly head when it comes to a person's hair color, such as the stereotypes that can revolve around people with red or blonde hair.
How to avoid it: Ensuring no photos are attached to resumes before review can help reduce hair-color bias.
18. Culture Bias
A type of affinity bias: people tend to favor those with similar cultural values to their own.
How to avoid it: Being aware of one's own cultural bias is an essential first step, as with many different types of unconscious bias. Having a diverse hiring team can also ensure that one individual's cultural bias does not impact recruitment decisions.
19. Idiosyncratic Rater Bias
It's common for people to use their own definition of success to make subjective judgments about others. Research has found that most people are unreliable when rating other individuals in the workplace.
How to avoid it: Conducting multi-rater reviews and ensuring that specific and clear assessment criteria are in place can help prevent idiosyncratic rater bias.
20. Nonverbal Bias
A person's nonverbal communication can also contribute to unconscious bias. For example, an individual might favor a person with a firm handshake over someone with a weak handshake.
How to avoid it: Being aware of one's own tendency to favor certain types of nonverbal communication over others can help reduce this bias in hiring and the workplace.
21. Overconfidence Bias
This type of bias refers to the tendency for individuals to overestimate their skill at certain abilities. This can lead to making rash decisions based on the assumption that we are more capable than we are.
How to avoid it: Asking for feedback from others is a very effective way to avoid overconfidence bias and ensure you take adequate time to make big decisions and assess all possible risks.
22. Illusory Correlation
Illusory correlation occurs when we link two actions, events, or variables that are not associated.
How to avoid it: Viewing a problem or situation from all angles and gathering as much information as possible can help combat the tendency to make illusory correlations.
23. Perception Bias
When we use overly simplistic stereotypes and assumptions about an individual based on the group they belong to, we fall prey to perception bias.
How to avoid it: To avoid perception bias in the workplace, it's important to challenge your assumptions and become aware of your preconceived notions.
24. Recency Bias
Recency bias is the tendency to give recent events greater weight than those that occurred longer ago.
How to avoid it: Working to improve one's memory can help avoid the occurrence of recency bias. For example, ensure you give yourself sufficient breaks when conducting interviews throughout the day, and take notes to help you track each candidate's experience and skills.
25. Affect Heuristic
Our brains make decisions using simple rules of thumb to increase the efficiency of the decision-making process. These mental shortcuts are known as heuristics. The affect heuristic refers to making decisions based on our emotions.
How to avoid it: Becoming more aware of your emotions and taking time to reflect after an emotional response can help you avoid the affect heuristic.
Dealing With Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
Unconscious bias can have a much more significant influence on our professional lives than we realize – impacting everything from how we make decisions to how we interact with our team. By becoming more aware of the different types of implicit bias and how they can affect our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors, we can work to create more trust and productivity in the workplace.
If it's time for you to tackle unconscious bias in your organization, take a look at our Implicit Bias in the Workplace Customizable Courseware. This course can help participants understand the nature and origins of unconscious biases, identify practical solutions to circumstances where implicit bias can occur, and much more.
Do you have any questions about unconscious biases, our customizable courses, or anything else related? If so, be sure to drop us a comment down below, and we'll get back to you within a couple of days. We pride ourselves on replying to every comment we receive, and we'd be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
