It stands to reason that when we attempt to make decisions, we attempt to do so having first collated as much data as we can.  Good data equals wise decisions, or at least that’s the hope.

Of course, that aspiration isn’t always met.  Information is coming at us like never before, and therefore we’re limited to a tiny fraction of all the information available to us.

Therefore we typically apply filters to help us select only the information we believe will be useful to us.  Some of these will be consciously chosen, but there will also be a number of subconscious ones we deploy.

As with most cognitive biases, there are a mixture of good and bad consequences of using them, but hopefully by being aware of these, it will help us to make better decisions.  Lets look at some of the risks involved.

How we filter information

• What kind of data do we prefer?  Most of us will fall into either a qualitative or quantitative camp.  Some will love a good story, whilst others prefer information dry and rooted in facts.  Whatever your particular preference, it may be causing you to filter out valuable information simply because it isn’t packaged in the right way
• Does it have to be measurable?  There’s a saying that if you can’t measure something, then you can’t manage it.  It suggests that only the quantifiable is valuable, when in reality things may not be quite so simple as all that.
• How valuable are unknown unknowns?  Donald Rumsfeld famously bemused the world with his speech about known and unknown unknowns during the Iraq war, but when it comes to decision making, we often succumb to the streetlight dilemma, whereby we base our decisions only on the information we’re aware of.  This can often prompt us to discount the value of information we’re not aware of and maybe even stop looking for fresh information under the mistaken belief we have all the data we need.
• Is your perspective the only perspective?  The Hobbesian fallacy reminds us that we frequently look at the world purely through our own lens, yet we often forget that there are other perspectives available that could be equally valid.  To compound this, in our version of events, we’re usually much kinder to ourselves than to others, especially when it comes to failure.

These are just some of the ways we can apply filters to information that distort our decision making.  Can you think of any others?