On a cold February evening, a man stands at a crosswalk. He's thinking about his young daughter waiting for him at home. The light turns green, and as he steps onto the road, a white SUV speeds past him. How will the man react? Surprise? Anger?
But if this man were the driver, the situation would be different. Instead of suddenly slowing down upon seeing the yellow light, he might judge it rational to accelerate and pass through the intersection.
Even if it's the same person, their perspective changes depending on the situation they encounter.
This is the 'actor-observer bias'.
Often, we assume objectivity, facts, and truth associated with data.
This includes the following aspects:
- Is it an empirical fact?
- Do all people feel the same way?
However, this very point can also prevent us from seeing the 'various truths' hidden behind statistical results.
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Actor-observer bias is a cognitive bias. It refers to the tendency to attribute one's own actions to situational factors while attributing other people's behaviors to their personality or intentions.
This bias can also be seen in a company's decision-making process.
A. When planning a survey, creating questions focused on confirming the value of a product or brand, or
B. When meeting with individuals to plan a product, focusing their attention on the 'product' within the everyday landscape, or
C. When reporting the results of collected data, organizing the text to align with the decision-maker's intentions.
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Effective countermeasures are as follows:
- Cross-functional team: While maintaining expertise, it's possible to create a structure where free and open exchange of opinions is possible, free from political decision-making within each team.
- Strengthened feedback loop: It's crucial to establish a system for examining customer and team member feedback more holistically, such as through participatory workshops.
- On-site investigation of actual users: Efforts must be made to build initial data by verifying when and in what context products or services appear in people's daily lives.
Human-centered, customer-centric approaches are values emphasized by many companies. However, even while pursuing a customer-centric approach, companies can fall prey to actor-observer bias because the decision-makers within the company are also human. Asking themselves what 'various realities' they may have overlooked at the moment of judgment involved in each process can be helpful.
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