After visiting the Thousand Oaks branch of FFCU, I was sitting outside on the curb in front of the ATM, waiting for my wife. We workout at the gym across the street and when I finished showering, I walked over. Since my wife always takes longer (she has a full head of hair and I have none), she drives over to pick me up.
As I was sitting there on the curb, with my gym bag tucked under one leg and a paper cup of free FFCU coffee in hand, an off-duty firefighter pulled up in the parking lot and approached the ATM. He stopped, gave me a long look and then asked, “Are you homeless? Do you need some help?”
When I stopped laughing, I explained the situation to my new friend and he laughed too – at least he pretended to. It wasn’t until later that I realized that this incident was actually a good example of a serious problem for first responders. This firefighter’s error in judgment was a common phenomenon called cognitive bias.
There are 100’s of cognitive biases and dozens that can impact situational awareness and decision making. It is important for responders to understand that we may possess a bias without knowing it and without knowing the impact of it.
“…an error in thinking that affects your judgment and decision-making abilities…”
Anchoring Bias
Anchoring is when we rely too heavily on the first piece of information that is offered to us – the “anchor.” In the incident at the CU, the firefighter used his “at work” filters to decide that I was homeless – this time with minimal adverse impact. But all too often at an incident, once we lock on to something that we think is right . . . that first piece of information… it can be very difficult for the brain to let go.
Dispatchers have a very difficult job in gathering and then sharing 9-1-1 information – the probability for error is extremely high. When your MDC says you are responding to a [fill in the blank], it can be very difficult to let go of that.
The initial data creates a framework in your mind to help make sense of the incident. If supplementary data doesn’t fit within that framework, our brains can simply ignore it, which is the entire premise of the Anchoring Bias.
Appeal to Tradition
This bias causes us to think that something is right or better because that’s the way we’ve always done it. Take the traditional firefighter’s helmet that we’ve been using in North America for more than 100 years. These helmets do not meet European safety standards, where their helmets fit completely around the head. The Euro-style has been purported to be more comfortable and practical, especially in confined spaces like an auto interior during an extrication. Can we defend our helmet choice based on credible scientific evidence that it is as safe or safer? If the European style proved more effective in overall emergency response, would we change, or stubbornly remain loyal to tradition and a less effective helmet?
The Blind Spot Bias
If I asked you how biased you are, you would probably say you are less biased than the average person, and that you are more likely to base your judgements on facts and statistics. That is known as the Blind Spot Bias, or the Bias Bias. You are biased because you think that you are less biased than everyone else.
For more info on how you think affects your situational awareness, check out https://www.samatters.com/blog/
By Dave Wagner