Why Putting On Blinders Can Help Us See More Clearly

The concept of blinding in decision-making and its potential benefits in reducing bias and increasing objectivity is discussed. It highlights research findings that show decision makers are susceptible to biases based on irrelevant attributes such as names or appearance when evaluating job candidate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:MIT Sloan management review 2021-07, Vol.62 (4), p.38-45
Main Authors: Fath, Sean, Larrick, Richard P, Soll, Jack B, Zhu, Susan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Auditing
Bias
Decision making
Decision-making, Group
Entrepreneurs
Evaluation
Management
Methods
Objectivity
Organizational behavior
Set (Psychology)
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The concept of blinding in decision-making and its potential benefits in reducing bias and increasing objectivity is discussed. It highlights research findings that show decision makers are susceptible to biases based on irrelevant attributes such as names or appearance when evaluating job candidates or entrepreneurs for funding. Blinding involves limiting the information that can be considered in an evaluation, thereby reducing the potential for bias. The authors have studied the benefits and barriers to blinding in organizational evaluations and found that evaluators can make fairer and more accurate assessments by proactively blinding themselves to potentially biasing information.
ISSN:1532-9194