Understanding, and breaking, our cognitive biases
5 Counterintuitive Habits Of Truly Authentic Leaders (Forbes):
“When you hold a certain belief or unconsciously decide on something, you’ll have a tendency to focus on and favor information that supports your belief or decision, discarding anything that contradicts it. You do it without even realizing it. Psychologists call this confirmation bias. While this is a fundamentally human foible to which neither the brilliant nor the principled are impervious, unchecked in a leader or decision-maker it could lead to damaging – even catastrophic consequences…
Authentic leaders ask their advisors to always look for contradicting evidence and empower them to ‘speak truth to power.’ “[To avoid confirmation bias] Every important argument,” she explains, “should be accompanied by the reasons why it could be wrong…”
“Eternal vigilance is a personal ideal that reduces the likelihood that our unconscious prejudices are influential in the things we do and how we construct our lives.”
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