Am I not letting go of something?

We can become fixed on certain pieces of information if, for example, they fit with our preconceptions about what happened or we have become anchored to them. Such fixation is the result of conservatism in belief revision which can make us stick to ideas even in the face of contradictory evidence.

Conservatism in belief revision can result in us not letting go of things. During interviews this can result in sticking to the same line of questioning, placing lower value on new information as it comes to light, and even refusing to believe those telling us something new.

Suggested actions:

For Interviewers

• Revisit the information collected and check you didn’t get hung up on something and didn’t let it go. If you think you did get stuck, follow up with further questions to explore other options.
• Check that you’ve explored each avenue fully and without prejudice, supplement with a checklist of interview question topics to ensure nothing obvious is missed.
• Check that you didn’t try to link each new piece of information back to whatever you didn’t let go of – did it all follow on or did you make it follow on?

For Managers

• Provide resources to enable note taking or other support during interviews, to allow for easy reflection by the interviewer(s) or others to highlight this bias should it occur.

Find out more about conservatism in belief revision here.