Andy’s Quick Hits (91): Surprising Way to Help De-Bias the Brain

Be real! Can we really de-bias the brain?
Well, as you know I’ve been involved in a lot of unconscious bias training and we know how little an impact this often has. In fact, standard unconscious bias training seems to be spectacularly unsuccessful!

So can we de-bias the brain?
Well, no we can’t de-bias the brain but we can make it better at dealing with biases. This is another piece of research that shows a surprising way to do this.

And what was that?
In this study, from earlier in the year, by Yoon et al. of City University London they conducted series of experiments whereby they compared classic advice or instructional rules with observation of others’ decision-making processes.

And what were the results?
Surprisingly, the observational settings whereby participants observed others making decisions was more effective in decreasing biases.

So simply watching others make decisions helps decrease biases?
Yes, but they did a further set of experiments and noted that combining informational learning with observation was more effective.