What Does Bias Have to Do with Magical Thinking?

Do you have any superstitions?

Maybe like me you feel compelled to knock on wood when speaking of something good. Or, if you’re a golfer, Unconscious Bias maybe you tap the club head before each drive or fidget with the lucky tee tucked in your left pants pocket. You might not really believe in those rituals; maybe it’s more like an itch you’re compelled to scratch, but that counts too. You do scratch the itch and that makes you at least a little bit of a believer.

There are lots of us “believers” out there and for good reason. Superstitions have a way of easing discomfort and fear. They give us the illusion of control, the sense that we can influence the uncontrollable or predict the unpredictable.

And that – it may surprise you – brings us to bias.

Biases – those inflexible beliefs that pop into our brain when encountering someone new – serve a similar function. Like superstition or magic, bias gives us the illusion of predictive power. Without knowing anything about a person, we convince ourselves we can anticipate who they are, what they want, and how they’ll behave.

Biases, by the way – like magic – aren’t particularly good at their job.

Sure, once-in- a-while someone might conform to our expectation just like, once in a while your, birthday wish comes true.

But most of the time, both wishes and biases provide only the illusion of accuracy. Just as tossing a coin in a fountain leaves us with an initial feeling of optimism only to let us down when the wish fails to come true, a bias at first make us feel more confident – more in control – only to leave us anxious and confused when it turns out to be wrong.

Can you recall a time when you assumed someone was a particular way based on the group to which he or she belonged and turned out to be completely wrong? Think about that event next time you catch yourself jumping to conclusions.

The material in this post reflects the ideas expressed in Dr. Thiederman’s book 3 Keys to Defeating Unconscious Bias and in the training videos Defeating Unconscious Bias: 5 Strategies and Gateways to Inclusion: Turning Tense Moments into Productive Conversations.

Sondra Thiederman can be contacted for virtual facilitation, and panel participation by clicking here or calling 619-992-3766. For additional information, go to this link to learn more about what Dr. Thiederman has to offer.

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