FIT5094 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Debiasing
29 Jun 2018
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WEEK 5
Biases:
Similarity: The likelihood of an event occurring may be judged by the degree of similarity
with the class it is perceived to belong to. The answers to decision questions can be subject to
the Similarity bias in which knowledge about a stereotype can override other considerations.
Desire: The probability of desired outcomes may be assessed to be greater than actually
warrants.
Chance: A sequence of random events can be mistaken for the essential characteristic of a
Process. The Chance bias arises when people mistake a random process as a persisting
change. It acts against the normative principle of statistical independence that suggests that if
events are independent, knowledge of one event outcome should have no bearing on
another succeeding event.
Framing: Framing is an extremely important bias for decision support systems and
information systems in general, as it has to do with the impact of the structure of information
display or presentation on human information processing.
Debias: Debiasing is a procedure for reducing or eliminating biases from the cognitive strategies of a
decision maker.
1) Acquire Expertise:
Getting information from a person who was both from an IT industry and at a higher
position than he was in at that point of time, and completely even-handed about the
two places, Mexico and Hong Kong, would have gained the interviewee better insight
about selecting a project. The interviewee mostly relied on information given to him
by his peers or friends and not a senior person. Consulting a senior person who has
more experience than him would have given a better judgement of choosing between
the projects, in terms of intellectual profitability and technical learnings. This strategy
would have helped the interviewee to avoid one of the ‘Desire biases’ he had, because
2) Understand Biases in others:
The fact that the interviewee was convinced that Indians were more likely to make it
to IT firms in Hong Kong without much struggle was majorly because of the
perception that came from his friends living in Hong Kong. At an early, naïve level,
maybe it was acceptable, but at a later stage, it just restricted the person from having a
broader picture of the possibilities. The interviewee could have followed the steps
below to understand the biases existing in others, that inevitably influences own’s
decision:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Similarity: the likelihood of an event occurring may be judged by the degree of similarity with the class it is perceived to belong to. The answers to decision questions can be subject to the similarity bias in which knowledge about a stereotype can override other considerations. Desire: the probability of desired outcomes may be assessed to be greater than actually warrants. Chance: a sequence of random events can be mistaken for the essential characteristic of a. The chance bias arises when people mistake a random process as a persisting change. It acts against the normative principle of statistical independence that suggests that if events are independent, knowledge of one event outcome should have no bearing on another succeeding event. Framing: framing is an extremely important bias for decision support systems and information systems in general, as it has to do with the impact of the structure of information display or presentation on human information processing.
