Situations / Judging people and hiring
Judging people and hiring
Forming impressions of people, hiring, promoting or reviewing performance.
Traps you might be in
- No. 0012 Ad HominemYou question a friend’s medical claim, and the reply reminds everyone that you failed biology in high school.
- No. 0064 Authority BiasYou shelve your doubts about a risky purchase after noticing the recommendation comes from a famous professor.
- No. 0077 Base Rate FallacyYour screening result comes back positive, and you assume you’re almost certain to have the disease.
- No. 0100 Bias Blind SpotYour colleague’s preferred candidate looks like favoritism; your own preferred candidate just seems obviously right for the job.
- No. 0191 Confirmation BiasYou decide a job offer is right, then spend the evening reading only the reviews that make it sound good.
- No. 0233 Curse of KnowledgeYou write six clear steps for a new hire, then spend an hour explaining what you thought needed no explanation.
- No. 0295 Dunning-Kruger EffectYou finish your first practice exam feeling ready, then the answer key reveals mistakes you didn’t even know to check.
- No. 0367 False Consensus EffectYou choose a remote cabin for the group trip, sure everyone wants to escape the city.
- No. 0409 Fundamental Attribution ErrorA coworker misses your deadline, and you decide she’s careless before asking what else landed on her desk.
- No. 0450 Halo EffectThe candidate gives a dazzling presentation, and you give their untested management skills a higher score.
- No. 0466 Hindsight BiasThe layoffs are announced, and last month’s vague worry suddenly feels like something you knew for sure.
- No. 0635 Motivated ReasoningYou want the apartment, so you read the glowing reviews once and reread the complaints until they sound unreasonable.
- No. 0650 Naive RealismYou leave a meeting certain the facts were obvious, wondering how your colleague could possibly have missed them.
- No. 0663 Negativity BiasYou reread the one harsh comment on your presentation while the ten thank-you messages sit unopened.
- No. 0688 Omission BiasYou leave a dangerous machine running, relieved that any accident won’t come from a change you approved.
- No. 0703 Outcome BiasYou drive home exhausted, arrive without a scratch, and decide you were fine to drive.
- No. 0846 Representativeness HeuristicA stranger talks enthusiastically about chess, and you decide he’s a mathematician before learning what he does for a living.
- No. 0895 Selection BiasYou read glowing reviews of a difficult course, then notice that every reviewer made it to the final lesson.
- No. 0910 Self-Serving BiasWhen your presentation wins praise, you credit your preparation; when it falls flat, you blame the room’s lousy attention.
Tools to try
- No. 0199 Consider-the-Opposite StrategyBefore sending a furious reply, you jot down three reasons your coworker’s message might not be an insult.
- No. 0249 Deliberate PracticeYou stop replaying the whole song and spend ten minutes on the four bars where your fingers keep stumbling.
- No. 0452 Hanlon’s RazorYour coworker leaves you off a meeting invite, and you’re already drafting the angry reply.
- No. 0696 Optimal StoppingYou find a rental you can afford, but keep refreshing the listings while its application deadline gets closer.
Patterns at play
- No. 0458 Hawthorne EffectWith a researcher watching you try the new app, you read every instruction you would normally skip.
- No. 0597 Matthew EffectThe editor requests another book from the famous author while your first manuscript still sits unread.
- No. 0736 Peter PrincipleYour best salesperson gets promoted, then spends every team meeting rescuing deals instead of coaching anyone.
Concepts to know
- No. 0193 ConfoundingYou buy the supplement used by the healthiest people at your gym, without asking what else they do.
- No. 0589 Map vs. TerritoryYour phone says the path continues, but you’re standing in front of a locked gate.
- No. 0830 Regression to the MeanAfter your lowest sales month all year, you take a course and celebrate when the next month’s numbers bounce back.