[ART.]How do cognitive biases affect during an interview?
WRITTEN BY VICTOR CARULLA, MANAGEMENT PARTNER AT HEADWAY EXECUTIVE SEARCH
The influence of cognitive biases on decision making during job interviews and the impact of artificial intelligence on the selection process.
Cognitive biases affect and have an impact, generally negative, when making a decision, whether on a personal or professional level. Each person has their own cognitive bias and this can modify our decision-making in our work environment.
We understand that it is a cognitive bias. It is a psychological effect, implicit in the human being, typical of the processing of information at a conceptual and sensory level that affects the making of important decisions in any aspect of life, distorting the judgment or irrational interpretation of the perception of situations or people. It is favored in situations where we must make decisions immediately. This can immediately lead us to erroneous thoughts. The question arises as to whether recruiters’ decision-making is only rational or whether there is also emotion and intuition when deciding.
“Deciding is a voluntary, systematic process that, through a subjective analysis, in the exercise of thought and with the emotion of the human being, obtains the choice/action of an alternative (or course of action) to meet the purposes . , objectives, purposes previously defined, clarified and weighed by the subject that we will call the decision-maker.” Bonatti (2011)
Distortions in the decision and biases are of cultural origin, as well as biological, and are different in each individual. These intuitive judgments are based on experiences about previous situations of each individual. That is, the same fact can be interpreted differently depending on the person, depending on the culture or society where they are located. They condition the way a person is treated by categorizing them based on their image, race, sex or social position. This distortion affects the perception and interpretation of life, impacting the optimal and rational choice. One of the main scopes on this topic is in the area of human resources, specifically in the area of recruitment and selection.
Techniques to avoid cognitive biases
Although biases are completely involuntary and unconscious, there are a series of techniques that can help control these factors, such as knowing how to identify our own prejudices and
stereotypes, establishing objective and standardized selection processes, clear evaluation criteria, structured interviews or predefined questions.
In addition, it is also important to evaluate candidates by evaluating job-related skills and competencies without going into personal characteristics, in order to follow the list of required competencies and evaluate candidates based on correct evidence. All of these tools will provide us with an unbiased view of the candidate to avoid biases based on personal characteristics.
It is important to remember that fair and equitable talent management and recruitment are essential to the success of a company and to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Continued efforts to recognize and overcome personal biases are key to achieving this goal.
What happens when AI comes into play?
As mentioned in the article Why the coffee cup test fuels our fears about AI | Business Insider Spain, AI has already revealed notable errors in the field of hiring. One of the best-known cases was the trial where Amazon tested the use of AI in personnel selection.
The online shopping company decided to implement AI and created 500 computer models to crawl the resumes of past candidates and collect around 50,000 key terms. Artificial intelligence would be responsible for choosing the most suitable candidates and recommending them. The problem was caused by training the AI mostly with male profiles, which ended up discriminating against female candidates. The company canceled the project.
After a year, engineers noticed that the AI was still discarding female resumes. Apparently, this was because the Artificial Intelligence reviewed the predominantly male resumes over the previous 10 years submitted to Amazon, and the system concluded that men were preferable, so it removed resumes that contained the word “woman” and eliminated candidates who had attended women-only colleges.
Human biases transferred to Artificial Intelligence
Apparently, as the article mentions, Amazon built an artificial intelligence tool for | Business Insider Spain, engineers modified the system so that biases were not applied, but found how the AI found new ways to unfairly discriminate against candidates.
Correcting algorithmic biases is a difficult problem because algorithms can detect subconscious biases in humans. In 2016, ProPublica found that risk assessment software used to predict which criminals were likely to reoffend was racially biased against black people. Overreliance on artificial intelligence in areas such as recruitment, credit scoring and probation has also caused problems in the past.
In conclusion, cognitive biases are inherent to human decision making and can have a significant impact on the interview process, particularly in the areas of recruitment and selection. The implementation of artificial intelligence in the selection process guarantees objectivity and efficiency, but it also creates major problems in the field of services.
Despite the challenges and biases inherent in human decision-making, it is important to emphasize that decision-making based on intuition, empathy, and human judgment remains critical in many aspects of life, including the selection process. Artificial intelligence can be a valuable tool to support decision-making, but its effectiveness depends largely on the quality of the underlying data and algorithms, as well as constant human oversight. Combining human knowledge with AI support may be the best way to eliminate cognitive bias and ensure fair and efficient decision-making in hiring and other areas.
