Did I take the first (or last) solution I heard?

We can anchor to certain pieces of information, and the timing of when we receive it can matter. This is called anchoring bias.

Anchoring bias often attaches us to the first piece of information we receive in a situation, which can be very important when interviewing a number of different people. If we anchor onto the first piece of information received from the first person interviewed, it can then influence how other possibilities are explored, and how questions are asked of the following interviewees. We use the anchor as our frame of reference for evaluating subsequent information received, which can result in our misinterpretation or over-valuing or de-valuing of new insights.

For example, if the first interviewee says production pressures were considerable on the jobsite when the incident occurred, anchoring bias can mean we then interpret all other opinions with reference to this ‘fact’. Should our second and third interviewees suggest there may have been a lack of resources or a change in work method we then evaluate this new information with reference to the anchor (that production pressures were high). In this case we might assume high production pressures ‘caused’ the change in work methods, and so production pressures remain the reason for the incident. The new information is devalued and dismissed and there is a failure to unpack alternatives further. As both a lack of resources and changes to work are common causal contributors to incidents, they should be fully explored instead of dismissing them as easily explained and justified by the anchor dropped at the start of the process.

We can also anchor to the very last thing we hear, which can result in ignoring what has gone before and simply prioritizing the newest piece of information.

Anchoring to either the first, or the last, piece information received can result in a poor interview and reduce the quality of the information obtained from the investigative process.

It’s hard to avoid anchoring bias, although research suggests experience and expertise in a field does help overcome it in practice.

Suggested actions:

For Interviewers

• Acknowledge that you’re vulnerable to anchoring bias and be mindful that it matters.
• Listen actively to all pieces of information.
• Evaluate each new piece of information equitably.
• Try considering the opposite, what if that wasn’t the case, then what?
• Try not to latch onto anything specifically, and systematically explore each avenue of inquiry that opens up, and supplement with a checklist of interview question topics to ensure nothing obvious is missed.
• Revisit the information collected and check you did follow up on all points mentioned and did not allow one thing to dominate your thinking just because of timing – there should be a better reason.

For Managers

• Try to include expertise on teams where possible.
• Be flexible in your resourcing and ensure enough headroom in scheduling to allow colleagues to support each other as necessary.
• 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 anchoring bias here.