Examples of personal biases

Even if you think that your recruitment selection processes are completely ethical and free of bias, you may still have specific biases because of a multitude of factors. The biases we have are formed by our own perceptions, cultural background, how we pay attention and how we listen. 

Biases can be cognitive, unconscious, statistical and prejudices. Before we go into the different kinds of personal bias, we will look at how they emerge via these categories.

Cognitive bias

Cognitive biases occur when you make an inference about someone based on given information. In this case, these inferences are not rational and are based on past experiences that influence the way you infer something about someone. These can be either positive or negative.

Unconscious bias

Unconscious bias is called this because it’s a type of bias you are not initially aware of. This means that unconscious bias can actually go against your own beliefs about what attitudes you hold about other people. You might not think that you have a bias for or against candidates based on their gender, race or social background, but you still have an unconscious bias that can influence your decision-making. Unconscious bias, therefore, is often not intended and is the result of social reinforcement via cultural or family attitudes.

Prejudices

Usually negative, prejudices are preconceived judgements that someone makes about another person based on what they believe to be true regardless of conflicting evidence. They might believe that someone of a certain gender, race or social background is not competent solely on the basis of their belonging to this category. If a candidate’s skills or attitude conflict with these preexisting judgements, the recruiter might choose to ignore this in favour of their own bias.

Statistical bias

While statistical bias might be less important to consider during recruitment processes, it’s still worth bearing in mind when making key strategic decisions. Statistical bias can arise when biases affect the sampling and collection of data. This means that the statistical results themselves won’t be an accurate representation of a population of people. Different forms of statistical bias to watch out for include sampling bias, bias in assignment, omitted variables and self-serving bias. 

Different kinds of personal bias

Halo effect

Sometimes recruiters end up forming opinions on a person based on an attribute that really stands out to them. You might decide that a candidate is intelligent because of the way that they dress (such as if they wear glasses to the interview). Because they wear glasses, you may mark them as more intelligent than other candidates. Or because you find them attractive, you decide that they must be a friendly, easy-to-get-along-with person.

When you attribute a new trait to a candidate based on another unrelated trait, this is known as the halo effect. The halo effect can be a form of unconscious bias, as you’re often not aware that this is affecting your thinking.

Therefore, the halo effect can be deceptive and lead to poor decision-making. It can lead to surprise or disappointment when you find out that your new recruit isn’t how you imagined that they would be based on one or two likeable attributes. To avoid the halo effect, it’s worth slowing down your thought processes when it comes to drawing up pros and cons about each candidate. Awareness in itself is a good first step as well, as it means that you are aware of any predispositions you might have formed either before or during the interview.

Horns effect

The inverse of the halo effect can happen too, where one negative trait leads you to have a negative predisposition to everything about a candidate. We might have pre-formed ideas about what makes an intelligent candidate, based on their accent, social background, or how quickly they speak. Basing your recruitment selection around one or two preconceived negative traits could lead to you ruling out quality candidates who would be a great fit for your company.

Avoiding the horns effect requires a similar approach to the halo effect. Slowing down decision-making processes so they are not gut reactions can help you to work out whether you are bringing personal bias into the equation. You might find that once you have ruled out some of the traits you considered negative, the candidate is actually much stronger than they first came across. 

Similarity bias

Another way we can be either positively or negatively predisposed to a candidate is through what’s known as the similarity or affinity bias. As we can be naturally drawn to people who have traits that resemble our own in some way, this can influence the recruitment selection process. 

By actively trying to avoid the similarity bias, you might be more likely to recruit a candidate that’s a culture add rather than a culture fit. This means that the candidate might still work harmoniously with your team while bringing their own unique skills and perspective into the mix. With a broader range of perspectives and constructive disagreement on a goal or strategy, your team might be able to make better decisions in the long run.

Confirmation bias

One of the most important types of bias to avoid is confirmation bias. We have a tendency to want to trust information that backs up or confirms our preexisting beliefs, and this can influence the recruitment process too. Confirmation bias can come from our preexisting beliefs about gender, race, social background, clothing or physical presentation. These kinds of bias can be the result of positive or negative experiences you have had with people that belong to a particular social category, or they could be on the basis of conditioning and verbal reinforcement.

A recruiter might have beliefs about people of a certain gender being worse or better at some tasks than others, and will try to pick out evidence during an interview that supports these beliefs. This might happen even during skills-based or competency tasks, where candidates have already proven that they have the right skills for the job. So, confirmation bias can lead to recruiters missing out on the best candidates.

Therefore, to avoid confirmation bias, you might need to recognise it in yourself first (much like other forms of personal bias). You might also want to familiarise yourself strongly with a candidate’s education and qualifications, to make sure you are not overlooking them.

Contrast bias

When working through numerous CVs, it can be tempting to compare CVs with each other rather than looking at each candidate as having unique strengths and weaknesses. This is known as contrast bias, and can lead to worse quality decision-making as by doing this, you are not considering whether the candidate has the right skills for the job. Instead, you are focusing solely on whether the candidate has a stronger CV overall than another candidate. By losing sight of your original goal, you might be missing key strengths that mark out a candidate as a likely fit for the job. 

To avoid contrast bias, try breaking down the CV scanning process into smaller chunks. That way, you are less likely to start comparing candidates with each other, which can lead to a less successful interview round. Contrast bias can also happen during the interview process too; an interviewer might compare two candidates’ qualities in succession rather than considering how strong they are compared to all available candidates.

Learning about personal bias can help recruiters to make better-informed candidate selection choices. That is because personal bias can cause you to overlook better candidates for the role. These kinds of bias are usually made emotionally, rather than rationally, and can leave you disappointed about the recruitment decisions you make. By compensating for personal biases by slowing down your decision-making process (rather than relying on intuition or snap judgement), you might pick out better-quality candidates from your pool.