What is the Group attribution error bias?
The group attribution error bias is, very simply, the tendency to overestimate the importance of personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others.
What is this bias dangerous?
It’s actually very dangerous because it causes us to misattribute positive and negative behaviors. This can lead us to make poor decisions about how to manage people on our teams and might even lead us to miss out on hiring great candidates.
Why do people use this bias?
Because we rely on examples that are most readily available to us when making judgements – e.g., ‘I’ve seen Tom be really rude several times so I know he is a rude person’. Therefore, our examples tend to consist of things like irritable behavior or unpleasantness which then skews our perception of a person’s disposition.
How do people use this bias?
People often use this bias when they are trying to come up with an explanation for someone else’s behavior. In doing so, we take the mental shortcut of relying upon previous instances of behavior as evidence of a person’s disposition – e.g., « oh, he was really rude and quite mean to me yesterday and I know that he is like that all the time… » .
How can we create this bias?
We can easily create this bias in ourselves by using readily available information or examples that stand out in our memory to make judgments about others. For example, if you see someone yelling at another person on your team (i.e., bad behavior) you are likely to remember it more readily than an instance where this person was helpful and kind (i.e., good behavior).
Group attribution error bias examples:
- The new guy on your team is really aggressive towards other people. Based on this, you might assume that he’s just naturally rude and there’s no point in trying to be nice or helpful because nothing will get through to him. You don’t take into account the fact that his boss makes him work long hours every day, so of course he will be irritable when he gets home! He actually does want to make friends with everyone but simply doesn’t have enough time. »
- If someone at work is being difficult about something small, it’s easy for us to let our emotions get carried away – « she’s always like that », or « he never thinks about anyone but himself ». We often forget how low our chances are of being able to read anyone else’s mind. If you ask the person why they acted this way, it might be obvious that there was a good reason for their behavior – they were rushing because of time pressure or they wanted to leave early on Friday.
How to avoid this bias?
It’s really essential that we create a conscious shift in our thinking so that we can be vigilant about avoiding the influence of this bias. One way to do this is by keeping track of the examples that our mind pulls up when trying to make judgements about individuals on our teams. It might help us stay objective if we instead stop after coming up with an example or two, challenge whether there are other possible explanations for these behaviors, and then ask ourselves why someone else might have acted differently given their experiences at work. The best way to learn how not to fall victim to this bias is simply to practice recognizing the bias in action. As with most cognitive biases, it’s important that you are aware of your own inherent mental shortcuts – not just when they are wrong, but also when they can be useful!
Which profession use this bias?
People who want to make conclusions about things without doing research or having some kind of background knowledge. e.g., journalism, politics, sales people and marketers. Any profession where people like to make assumptions about other based on personal experience and feelings (or what they see). These professions take advantage of our natural bias towards trusting thoughts and opinions we form for ourselves.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, group attribution error bias is a thinking bias which can be dangerous to make decisions about how to manage people on your team and might even lead us to miss out on hiring great candidates. To avoid this bias we need to take the mental shortcut of relying upon previous instances of behavior as evidence of a person’s disposition – e.g., « oh, he was really rude and quite mean to me yesterday and I know that he is like that all the time… ». The best way to learn how not to fall victim to this bias is simply by practice recognizing the bias in action. Also it’s essential that we create a conscious shift in our thinking so that we can be vigilant about avoiding influence of such cognitive biases. This is because we need to stop after coming up with an example or two, challenge whether there are other possible explanations for these behaviors, and then ask ourselves why someone else might have acted differently given their experiences at work. »
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