The Causes and Effects of Judgmental Distortions and Bias and Awareness of Common Traps

The Causes and Effects of Judgmental Distortions and Bias
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The Causes and Effects of Judgmental Distortions and Bias
Decision-making is a critical part of life. Often, people need to decide on issues and bear with the consequences. In the business world, decisions are made daily. Such judgments affect an entity's operations and determine its success or failure. For instance, a business may be thinking of expanding into a new market. Before making a move, the management may need to know whether or not that is a viable move. This means gathering all the necessary information, analyzing it, and making a judgment regarding the best possible move. Even at an individual level, people constantly make decisions regarding their day-to-day activities. Without sound judgment, the outcome can be devastating. In today's chaotic and uncertain world, greatness depends on individuals' choices rather than by chance (Collins & Hansen, 2011). Surprisingly, a majority of human decisions are clouded by bias and irrationality. Hence, there is no guarantee that human judgment will be free of bias. In as much as people may feel their judgment is fair, distortions and biases are common. This research delves into causes and effects of judgmental distortions and bias with the aim of helping individuals remain aware of the common traps and hence averting a decision failure.
The Meaning of Judgment
Judgment implies the capability to determine what should be undertaken after carefully considering an issue. In many cases, individuals are inclined to believe that good decisions result from sufficient information (Siebert et al., 2021). In this case, some individuals research for facts and analyze the available data to establish the best course of action. In the modern world, the advancement of technology has allowed humans to use machines to analyze data. More than before, people can collect more data and analyze it to determine the best approach to an issue. The availability of data and analytical tools has made it easier for individuals to make critical decisions (Kavale, 2012). However, it is vital to acknowledge that humans eventually decide which information to consider, and human fallibility impacts their choices. This is because decision-making is essentially a cognitive process, and hence human tendencies play a critical part in the whole process (Alvino & Franco, 2017). Since it is a product of thinking, decision-making could be rational or irrational.
Common Types of Biases
It is essential to know the various biases and errors affecting judgment. These cognitive biases and errors fall into various major categories. The first type is confirmation bias, which implies listening more to the information that affirms the already existing beliefs (Peters, 2020). Because of this bias, individuals favor information that agrees with what they already know. For instance, someone can choose to believe information from news sources supporting their views while ignoring news sources that disagree with their position. Since the bias causes people to reinforce their existing beliefs, it prevents them from integrating different viewpoints to decide (Peters, 2020). Such people...