Have I evaluated all evidence equally?

Whether we like someone better than someone else, whether we’re not sure about someone, whether we’re confident that someone knows what they’re talking about – all evidence and information should be evaluated with equal care and attention. Be mindful of stereotyping, which can have considerable influence here and is hard to overcome, even when you are aware of it.

All evidence should be evaluated equally – this may mean we disregard some in due course, or find conflicts (to be expected) between accounts, but don’t rush this process.

Suggested actions:

For Interviewers

• Don’t dismiss any information too quickly, carefully consider all contributions before making judgements about accuracy and relevance. Remember this is the information collection phase and conclusions come after analysis.
• Be mindful of your biases, and take steps to avoid letting them sway how much you value one piece of information over another.

For Managers

• Be flexible in your resourcing and ensure enough headroom in scheduling to allow colleagues to spend time evaluating the information collected equitably.

Find out more about confirmation bias, anchoring bias, availability bias and representativeness bias here.