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Debiasing

Definition

Debiasing refers to the wide variety of techniques, methods, and interventions that are designed to eliminate or lessen potential errors, distortions, or other mistakes in people's thinking, judgment, or decision making. Specific debiasing techniques can be placed into three general categories: (1) cognitive, involving things like changes in the ways in which decision makers conceptualize a problem; (2) motivational, involving things like changes in the ways in which incentives or punishments are allocated to decision makers; or (3) technological, involving things like changes in the ways in which computers and other technological advances can be employed to assist in problem solving.

Because people are imperfect and fallible decision makers, no matter which techniques are ultimately implemented, the term debiasing is normally used to refer to something that occurs to a relative degree rather than something that occurs completely.

Background and Importance

When there are problems, people quite naturally look for possible solutions. People are certainly skilled enough in their decision making to get through life perfectly fine most of the time, but they are also often unskilled enough to make predictable mistakes in their judgments. For the human decision maker, the glass is thus both half full and half empty.

Although debiasing research occasionally appears to be overshadowed somewhat by research demonstrating various biases—it may seem more noteworthy to show that something is broken rather than to show how to fix it—both debiasing and biasing are equally important to fully understanding decision making. Just as the study of biases can supply a roadmap predicting the conditions under which judgmental mistakes are likely to occur, the study of debiasing can supply a roadmap describing what might be done about these mistakes.

Evidence for Techniques

Evidence supporting the three general categories of debiasing techniques is fairly extensive and comes from diverse sources. This is illustrated with some specific examples.

Cognitive

Perhaps one of the best-researched cognitive debiasing techniques requires people to consider the opposite of their initial impressions before making a final decision. The strategy essentially entails asking, “Are there reasons why my initial judgment may be wrong?” For example, with the hindsight bias, people are most apt to come up with reasons supporting known outcomes, and thus those outcomes seem inevitable. Thinking about the opposite can work as a debiasing intervention by directing people's attention to alternative outcomes that might not have otherwise received adequate consideration. This debiasing technique seems to work especially well when people can easily think of opposing alternatives.

Other cognitive debiasing techniques involve education and training. People who know the correct rule to calculate the area of a parallelogram simply make fewer errors than those who do not. Similar to mathematics, one presumption is that other judgmental rules might likewise be taught. For example, once people learn that large samples represent a population better than small samples, this can lead to more accurate decision making. Educational training seems to be most effective when decision rules are concrete and directly applicable.

Motivational

Motivations can similarly influence debiasing. For example, people have a general propensity to simplify the world by categorizing things. An object with a flat platform, straight back, and four legs, may be characterized as a chair. However, one particularly negative consequence of this tendency is stereotyping. People may similarly characterize others just because they think the person belongs to a particular group. Although debate exists regarding the extent to which stereotyping is automatic, incentives such as considering future interactions with a person can sometimes lead to less reliance on stereotypes and more reliance on personalized information. Punishments, such as considering retribution for acting in prejudiced ways, may also lead people to put greater effort into decisions, resulting in less bias.

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