Four ways digital inclusion tools can bust self-serving bias

As humans, we’re susceptible to believing we are better at something than we really are, a phenomenon known as self-serving bias. When it comes to inclusion, it can mean that we’re in denial about excluding people or treating them unfairly – but the good news is that digital inclusion tools can hold up an objective mirror to our behaviour and help us address it.

When asking 200 leaders whether they considered themselves to be ‘below average’, ‘average’, or ‘above average’ at being an inclusive leader, research that we conducted at Pearn Kandola found that 100% of the leaders questioned rated themselves as being ‘above average’ – an assessment that, perhaps predictably, wasn’t shared by their subordinates.

Self-serving bias can lead us to attribute our successes to internal factors, such as our own skill, hard work or character strengths, while blaming our failures on external factors such as bad luck, lack of resources or other people.

Self-serving bias can be seen as a form of self-enhancement, where individuals seek to bolster their self-esteem and maintain a positive self-image, but it also serves a protective function by helping us to preserve our feelings of self-worth in the face of failure. It can be psychologically challenging to accept personal responsibility when things go wrong, so attributing them to external factors can be a way to reduce our feelings of guilt, shame or embarrassment.

It’s no surprise that self-serving bias has been shown to have profoundly negative consequences for our interpersonal relationships in the workplace. When people consistently take personal credit for their successes but attribute their failures to their colleagues, it will inevitably create friction. This can contribute to a culture of blame, where people refuse to take responsibility when things go wrong and where there is a general lack of accountability.

Self-serving bias is also a major barrier to diversity and inclusion. Just like the 200 leaders in our study, we all tend to believe that we treat others more fairly and equitably than we really do. As a result, we’re likely to believe that we don’t need to change our behaviour – to get a more diverse and inclusive culture it is others who need to change. As a result, no-one does anything and the culture remains the same.

The good news is that digital tools for diversity and inclusion can provide crucial insights into our biases and can also give us the means with which to tackle them. Here’s how.

1. They show us how inclusive we really are

Digital diagnostic tools such as Implicit Association tests provide personal insight into how inclusive we are and the kind of biases we hold – something that’s been found to be a key part of enabling behaviour change. Based on tried and tested methodology and psychometric models, they give us an honest and objective picture of what we do – or don’t do – to be inclusive of colleagues around us and lay the foundations for taking action that will really make a difference.

2. They pinpoint our inclusion strengths and weaknesses

We’re all driven to be inclusive by different things and have traits that will make it easier or harder for us to behave in an inclusive way. Digital diagnostic tools can help to identify our inclusion strengths and weaknesses and enable us to target our areas for development. This means we don’t waste time covering things that we’re good at and can focus on the areas that need the most work. We’re far more likely to engage with learning that we can see is relevant to us and helpful for our professional development, meaning that we’re far more likely to retain and apply what we’ve learned.

3. They can help to re-train our brains

Even though we may not be aware of it, we are all influenced by stereotypes around things like a person’s gender, race, age, sexual orientation, accent or appearance. Interactive digital tools can help us to retrain our brains to think differently, prompting us to form new associations and break unhelpful negative thinking patterns. Tools such as K+ NEGATE help us to create new associations in our brain around gender identity and dismantle harmful stereotypes that might be undermining our inclusion efforts.

4. They measure change and progress

Things like behaviour and attitude shifts can be very hard to gauge, as can the impact of inclusive behaviours. Online DEI learning that incorporates both digital diagnostic tools and DEI data analytics makes it possible to measure these and aggregate useful data across an entire organisation. This provides individuals with insights into how effective they are being and enables organisations to gather crucial information to inform their diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and support employees’ professional development.

Unless we puncture our self-serving bias with insight, no one will take accountability for change.

At Kandola+ we’ve developed a range of unique bias-busting digital DEI tools to help you create a more equitable and inclusive workplace, together with data analytics that aggregate data to help shape your wider diversity and inclusion strategy.

Do you want to avoid bias, create an inclusive environment at work and build inclusion across your diverse workforce? Contact us to find out more or to book a demo.