Decision Tips
Be aware that all our perceptions are biased.
It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem.
—G. K. Chesterton
The following represents a classic study in perception: Twenty-three middle-level managers were asked to read a comprehensive case describing the operational activities in a steel company.1 Six of the 23 executives worked in the area of sales, five in production, four in accounting, and eight in miscellaneous functions. After reading the case, each of these executives was then asked to identify the problem a new company president should deal with first. Eighty-three percent of the sales executives rated sales most important, but only 29 percent of the others did. Similarly, the production executives gave priority to the production area, and the accounting people focused on accounting problems. These findings led to the conclusion that these participants interpreted the cases’ priorities in terms of the activities and goals of the functional areas to which the executives were attached. That is, the perception of organizational activities was selectively interpreted by these executives in response to their experience, training, and vested interests.
When situations are ambiguous, as they were in the steel company case, perception tends to be influenced more by an individual’s base of interpretation than by the stimulus itself. Attitudes, interests, experiences, and background selectively bias what we see.
The steel case illustrates how departmental affiliation in an organization can bias perceptions, but this bias can be shaped by numerous factors. Age, gender, race, early childhood experiences, occupation, and family status are some other examples. For instance, a 70-year old is more likely to notice rap music than a 20-year old because it’s less familiar to an older person. Single women often see meaning in off-hand comments made by male suitors that differ considerably from what the men intended. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and other minorities, who have experienced a lifetime of discrimination, are much more likely to note and take offense at a racial slur than someone who has never experienced racial discrimination. Couples with children see a world that is very different from that perceived by childless couples. And in relationships, selective perception is often the reason that friends can see problems in our marriages that we can’t. Our friends aren’t weighted down with the “baggage” of our experiences and expectations.
Do you think the media is fair in covering world events? What’s fair depends on which side you are. For instance, a study of pro-Arab and pro-Israeli students found that they both agreed that television news coverage in the United States of an Arab-Israeli conflict during a 10-day period was biased.2 However, each group of students saw the bias in favor of the other side. On average, pro-Arab students reported that 42 percent of the references to Israel were favorable and only 26 were unfavorable. Pro-Israeli students in contrast recalled 57 percent of the references to Israel as unfavorable and only 16 percent as favorable.
We...selectively organize and interpret events based on our biased perceptions and then call this interpretation reality.
The world is far more ambiguous than most of us are willing to admit, and each of us has a unique perceptual base from which we see and interpret this ambiguous world. The result? We’re incapable of objectively seeing events around us. Rather, what we do is selectively organize and interpret events based on our biased perceptions and then call this interpretation reality. Selective perception biases decision making by influencing the information we pay attention to, the problems we identify, and the alternatives we develop. Because we see a biased world, we can draw unwarranted conclusions from ambiguous situations. This was demonstrated in a study on capital punishment.3 Proponents and opponents of the death penalty were both asked to read two position papers—one for and the other against capital punishment. Consistent with selective perception, exposure to the conflicting findings only acted to reinforce the views held before reading the position papers. Participants in the study ignored evidence that contradicted their beliefs and actually interpreted the mixed evidence to confirm the validity of their original beliefs.
We can’t eliminate selective perception. Each of us brings to every situation the baggage of our past experiences, attitudes, and vested interests. We can, however, actively attempt to minimize our perceptual biases by increasing our awareness, confronting our expectations, and considering how others might interpret the situation.
Begin by acknowledging that both “truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder.” There is no pure objectivity. We all see the world through our unique tainted lenses, which allows us to believe what we want to believe. Next, you need to understand what your perceptual biases are. What expectations do you bring to a situation that might bias the way you see it? Finally, ask yourself whether someone else with different expectations might see the same situation differently. For example, Shawna Clark was 30 years old. She grew up in the 1980s and 1990s—a time of economic optimism. In the spring of 2000, when the stock market began what became a three-year decline, Shawna saw every dip as a buying opportunity. Every time the Dow dropped 400 or 500 points, she faithfully put more money into the market. Sadly, by early 2002, she had lost 40 percent of her savings. Shawna’s selective-perception problem was created by her experience. She had never seen the stock market maintain sustained losses during her lifetime. All she had ever experienced was a stock market that went up, interrupted by occasional short-term setbacks, so she saw every downturn as an opportunity to buy stocks on the cheap. Her dad, on the other hand, saw protracted market losses during the 1973-75 recession, and her grandfather lived through the market declines of the early 1930s. Both her dad and grandfather were less convinced that the market would quickly rebound and that every decline between 2000 and 2002 was a buying opportunity. Shawna’s behavior changed in March 2002, when she challenged herself to see the declining market through the eyes of her dad and grandfather. “I saved myself a lot of grief and money when I looked at market patterns over 70 years instead of just the last 10.”
Be aware that all our perceptions are biased.
Assess how your expectations in a situation can bias your perceptions.
Consider how an impartial outsider might see the situation differently.