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Key points
- Our brains tend to conflate how easy it is to recall something with how often that thing happens.
- This means that we will tend to believe things that are very memorable happen much more often than they do.
- This can have implications for how we understand work situations, and can lead to errors in judgement.
One of the little tricks our brains use when interpreting the world is to conflate the ease with which we can recall something with it’s frequency. Referred to as the "availability bias," this means that if it’s easy for us to recall an example of something happening, our brain will interpret that ease as meaning that thing must happen often. This shortcut is generally functional—like all mental shortcuts, it’s designed to help us piece together a pretty accurate picture of the world, very quickly. But while it’s generally functional, it can cause us to inadvertently misinterpret certain things in a way that causes us to make judgment errors when evaluating situations.
One of the most common examples of the availability bias is our tendency to believe that airplane crashes happen much more often than they do. In general, airline travel is extremely safe—the fact is that airplanes crash pretty infrequently. But, when they do, the events tend to be big and dramatic—and that makes them memorable. Our brain then misinterprets this memorability for frequency.
Another good example of a similar phenomenon is our irrational fear of shark attacks. Shark attacks are another phenomenon that happens pretty infrequently, but similar to airplane crashes, when they happen they are dramatic and memorable events, leading our brains to the conclusion that they happen more often than they actually do.
While our tendency to misinterpret the frequency of things like airplane crashes and shark attacks may not have major consequences for our lives, the availability bias may be having some surprising effects on the way we interpret work situations. In fact, the availability bias could be responsible for some common work mistakes we all make, such as:
- Unreliable coworkers. Do you have a co-worker who you think of as “mistake-prone”? Some people really are mistake-prone—in other words, they make a lot of mistakes. But oftentimes we think of our coworkers as mistake-prone because they made one simple (but memorable) mistake. As with plane crashes or shark attacks, if it’s easy for you to think of a time when a coworker made a mistake, like losing a big account, entering an important piece of data incorrectly, or saying the wrong thing at just the wrong time—the availability bias may be causing you to confuse memorability with frequency. So, take a moment and think about your mistake-prone coworker—do they really make a lot of mistakes, or is it just that they made one mistake that’s very easy for you to remember?
- Unpleasant coworkers. Do you have a coworker who you think of as kind of a jerk? Again, it’s possible that this person really is just chronically unpleasant, but it’s also possible that there was one big, dramatic event that you’re remembering that’s making you misinterpret how frequently this coworker annoys you. Maybe you had a bad argument about something or they said something really offensive to you at some point. If there was an event that really sticks out in your mind, you may be misinterpreting how frequently this coworker’s bad behavior actually happens. Think about your relationship with this person—is it possible that they’re not chronically aversive, and it’s just one encounter that’s making you think so?
- Counter-normative coworkers. Do you have a coworker who you think of as weird or strange, someone that never seems to be doing what is expected of them? Surprising or unexpected events are some of the most memorable events we experience. When everything is operating normally, that tends not to be very memorable. But when someone behaves a little bit out of the ordinary, that grabs our attention and causes us to focus in on it in a way that is very memorable. So, if a coworker tells an awkward joke, or wears clothing that isn’t appropriate for the situation, it’s very easy for us to recall these events because they stand out. Because of how memorable these unique events are, they can cause you to overestimate how often someone does them.
These are just a few examples of how simple behaviors can cause us to misinterpret our coworkers, just based on how memorable or easy to recall the behavior is. The good news is, these shortcuts aren’t set in stone. They happen automatically, but when we scrutinize them, we can often make corrections and fix the error in judgment.
