30/6/2022 Get out of your Bias Blind Spot !!!There are numerous cogitative biases; assumptions and presumptions that our brains make that can tilt the way we view reality. The bias blind spot is where we can objectively recognise those biases in others, but fail to see those in ourselves. Rather like the blind spot on the passenger side of a car, we’re not aware of it unless we do something to change our perspective. Research in America showed that 85% of participants in a survey thought they were less biased than the ‘Average American’. In fact only one participant thought they were more more biased. (Similarly, and in line with the analogy of a blind spot when driving, when asked if they were better than the average driver, 93% of American respondents ranked themselves above average). And it is of course natural for us not to recognise our cognitive blind spots; they are unconscious processes, they hidden from us, so we are naturally unaware of them.
And this leads straight into disputes. Once we think our own reasoning and decision making is objective and ‘pure’, we start to label other’s as not only biased but label their intentions cynically, ascribe to them ‘intentional malice’. And then we’re seeing things from different angles, we’re reading ‘wrong’ into everything they do. If we’ve already fallen out then we’re going to find it difficult to find any common ground. And so the work of the mediator starts. The first step is to listen. They need to tell their story, for me as an objective party to hear them, for me to start to see the cognitive processes at work. Then ask questions. Start to test their views, put up implied propositions and see how they react as they answer. I may then reality test, helping them put the lens to their views and seeing if they survive the oxygen of objectivity. Then I may move on to developing empathy; helping them put themselves in the other party’s shoes, seeing if they continue to read into their actions any malevolent intent. And as we move through this, I find that people naturally start to see things differently, and as they do so, the window for settlement opens up. But in all of this, I try to maintain an awareness that in the same way we can’t all be better than average, I bring my own unconscious biases and blind spots to the mediation. Comments are closed.
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AuthorRichard Marshall is an Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator with over 25 years experience as a Litigation Solicitor, as well as being a qualified Solicitor-Advocate. He is the founder of Striving to Settle, through which he works as a mediator and provides negotiation training. www.strivingtosettle.co.uk Archives
August 2022
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