Debiasing

Debiasing is the reduction of bias, particularly with respect to judgment and decision making. Biased judgment and decision making is that which systematically deviates from the prescriptions of objective standards such as facts, logic, and rational behavior or prescriptive norms. Biased judgment and decision making exists in consequential domains such as medicine, law, policy, and business, as well as in everyday life. Investors, for example, tend to hold onto falling stocks too long and sell rising stocks too quickly. Employers exhibit considerable discrimination in hiring and employment practices,[1] and some parents continue to believe that vaccinations cause autism despite knowing that this link is based on falsified evidence.[2] At an individual level, people who exhibit less decision bias have more intact social environments, reduced risk of alcohol and drug use, lower childhood delinquency rates, and superior planning and problem solving abilities.[3]

Debiasing can occur within the decision maker. For example, a person may learn or adopt better strategies by which to make judgments and decisions.[2][4] Debiasing can also occur as a result of changes in external factors, such as changing the incentives relevant to a decision or the manner in which the decision is made.[5]

There are three general approaches to debiasing judgment and decision making, and the costly errors with which biased judgment and decision making is associated: changing incentives, nudging, and training. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses. For more details, see Morewedge and colleagues (2015).[2]

  1. ^ Mullainathan, Sendhil (January 3, 2015). "Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions". The New York Times. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Morewedge, C. K.; Yoon, H.; Scopelliti, I.; Symborski, C. W.; Korris, J. H.; Kassam, K. S. (13 August 2015). "Debiasing Decisions: Improved Decision Making With a Single Training Intervention" (PDF). Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2 (1): 129–140. doi:10.1177/2372732215600886. S2CID 4848978.
  3. ^ Parker, Andrew M.; Fischhoff, Baruch (January 2005). "Decision-making competence: External validation through an individual-differences approach". Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 18 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1002/bdm.481.
  4. ^ Larrick, Richard (2004). "Debiasing". Blackwell handbook of judgment and decision making (1st ed.). Malden, Mass. [u.a.]: Blackwell. p. 316. ISBN 978-1-4051-0746-4.
  5. ^ Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. (2008). Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness (Revised and expanded ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300122237.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)