On our January 16, 2013 blog, I gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to judgments that are faulty.  So much of positive leadership is about good decision making so we really wanted to expand on different biases. In the second of our series, I am going to talk about Negativity Bias – the tendency to give more weight to negative information than positive information. When I think about the Negativity Bias, I immediately think of the amygdala, which is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain (specifically, if you happen to be curious, in medial temporal lobe).

The amygdala triggers your emotions faster than your conscious awareness and played a very important role in our past.  Think caveman and a T-Rex  – the amygdala quickly interprets the hints of danger (about 20 milliseconds) and activates the caveman’s sympathetic nervous system….Zog runs and lives another day.  If Zog had waited to become aware (about 300 milliseconds), he would’ve been lunch.

According Rich Hanson, a neuropsychologist, “humans evolved to be fearful — since that helped keep our ancestors alive.” The difference between then and now is that the likelihood of being eaten alive is pretty darn small today in modern times.  So while it helped our ancestors live, for us, it can be a nuisance when we find ourselves overreacting or favoring negative information over positive.  And we really do favor the negative.  We know that negative stimuli produce more neural activity than positive stimuli.   And to add insult to injury, negative information is more quickly stored into long term memory than positive information.

And the result?  We all have negativity bias.  As a species, we give greater weight to negative experiences and information than positive.  (No wonder the old broadcast news adage, “If it bleeds, it leads” has been so popular.)

So, what does this mean in your organization?

• -It means threats are overestimated.  Ever wonder how that untrue rumor of layoffs spread like wildfire in such a short span of time?
• -It means that your whole team, you included, are more inclined to notice mistakes than achievements.
• -It means a bruised (read: scared) ego can run “amuck” when it’s simply not warranted.
• -It means teams can underestimate an opportunity and you can be missing the boat on the next potential target market or product/service.
• -It also means teams can see a resource as scarce causing a more political environment and absence of risk taking.

So what can you do?

• -For starters, be aware of the Negativity Bias. And make your teams aware.
• -Understand that it takes about four pieces of positive information to each negative piece for teams to be happy  – which, by the way, has been proven to lead to productivity.   So share positive information. Bring it to the surface.
• -Dispute negative thinking with the facts.  Ask questions that surface the facts.
• -Don’t ruminate and don’t let your teams ruminate.  Move on rather than going over the same negative information again and again.

I hope this was interesting and I welcome any comments.  In Part 3 in our “Cognitive Bias and Leadership” Series, I will be exploring Confirmation Bias, which is the tendency to search for or interpret information that confirms what we already think or prefer.

Be sure to stay tuned as we expand on each of the cognitive biases above in this blog series.

Cognitive Bias

What is cognitive bias and what the heck does it have to do with leadership? A cognitive bias is our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes. This means we have a tendency to make judgments that are faulty…and faulty in predictable ways. Of course anything that affects our judgments and decision making will ultimately affect our ability to effectively lead. In this blog, I am going to give a quick definition of some of the cognitive biases to be aware of in the workplace. The following could significantly impact on your organization:

1. Negativity Bias – the tendency to give more weight to negative information than positive information.
2. Confirmation Bias – the tendency to search for or interpret information that confirms what we already think or prefer.
3. Anchoring Bias – the tendency to favor a piece of information and “anchor” or rely too heavily on that information when making decisions.
4. Illusion of Control Bias – the tendency to overestimate your degree of influence over other external events.
5. Bandwagon Bias – the tendency to believe things just because many other people do….think herd behavior here.
6. Mere-exposure Bias – the tendency to prefer things because people are familiar with them.
7. Irrational Escalation Bias – the tendency to justify more investment based on the investment made prior, regardless of any new evidence that might suggest the decision wasn’t the best path.
8. Status Quo Bias (or System Justification Bias) – the tendency to like things to stay relatively the same and avoid change.
9. In-group Bias – the tendency to view your own group or department as superior to another.
10. The Spacing Effect Bias – the tendency for people to better recall information if it’s repeated over time instead of occurring once or having happened “grouped together” in time.
11. Forward Bias – the tendency to create models based on past data, which are validated only against that past data.

I am sure you are already starting to get the picture on how cognitive biases can affect decision making in your organization. Be sure to stay tuned as we expand on each of the cognitive biases above in this blog series.