Illumination Insights

The Bias Blind Spot

We all need to doubt a little of our own infallibility

It is an increasingly small world. Some of us are just slow in realizing or coming to terms with that fact.

Ironically, the fact that I consider myself to be pretty cognizant of how susceptible all of us humans are to cognitive biases is actually a manifestation of what is called the bias blind spot.

This term was coined by Emily Pronin from Princeton University and refers to the tendency of people to detect cognitive and motivational biases in others much more frequently than in their selves. One of her studies on the topic is here.

In regular terms, we tend to think that we are objective and see things as they really are while believing that everyone else’s perspective is subjective and that they don’t see things as clearly.

So maybe that is why I am constantly amazed when I come to the realization that I haven’t been seeing things for being as complex and intricate and wonderful as they actually are. And, maybe that is also why I frequently fail to realize how susceptible I am to the familiarity principal bias.

The familiarity principal (or mere-exposure effect) is the tendency to develop a preference for things because we are familiar with them. This principle is put to good use in advertising where established brands enjoy repeat business because of their customers’ familiarity with a brand or product.

But there is a downside. For lack of a fancy term, let’s call this the narrow worldview syndrome. When I look at the world, I see it through my own individual lens made up of all my experiences, exposures and attitudes.

Even though I fundamentally know that other peoples’ lenses are vastly and dramatically different than my own, I subconsciously tend to believe they are not so different. Because of that, I sometimes fail to appreciate the diversity of others’ perspectives. I get tunnel vision.

I think that we all experience that, and Pronin’s theory reinforces the concept. We all think we are much more objective that we really are.

In the past few weeks I have had the occasion to have my veil of narrow worldview syndrome lifted just a little bit. This comes from two particular things. One is the coordination and involvement I have had with the ILLUMINATION publication behind the scenes, and the other is the happenstance of what I have used as inspiration for my writing of late.

First, my writing inspiration has come from deciding to do a thirty-day run of picking a random Wikipedia article from which to distill some everyday wisdom. While the intent was to take a topic and elicit three take-home points in a succinct article format, an added bonus side-effect was the richness of the topics I found along the way.

Each day I am astounded by the stuff that I didn’t know was happening all around us. It has served to widen my worldview just a little bit.

The other interaction that is serving to open my eyes wider is the collection of people that have thrown themselves into the ILLUMINATION effort. It turns out the writers and editors are scattered all over the entire planet.

Now, while it is one thing to say that — and you are probably thinking yeah, yeah so what — it has really hit home for me to realize just how truly amazing that is.

The way this realization has manifested is that when we communicate on the ILLUMINATION Slack channel about ideas and issues, we are all in various different time zones and portions of our day. Most of the time when Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Kevin Buddaeus and Dipti Pande are in full work mode I am fast asleep; and vice versa.

Yeah, I know what you are thinking: “That’s how time works, Tim. You see, the world is a sphere, and there is only one sun and it can only shine on one segment of the sphere at any given point, and it rotates, etc.”

It is just that the concept of a global community really takes on even more meaning when you are trying to communicate with someone on the opposite side of that sphere.

So, my take-home message is this: Even if you think you are extremely aware of how the world works, how diverse we all are, and how astounding this place is, you can still probably do with some expanded perspective.

We can all take a cue from Benjamin Franklin and take pause for a moment to doubt a little of our own infallibility.

I know that is true for me. I suspect it is true for all of us.

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.