Perception Bias And Decision Making Essay 2022

Running head: PERCEPTION, BIAS AND DECISION MAKING
Perception, Bias and Decision Making
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1PERCEPTION, BIAS AND DECISION MAKING
Human beings need to take decisions of various kinds throughout their life. The
decisions that they take are expected to be guided by their knowledge and rational thinking.
Whereas, in reality, te decisions are largely influenced by our perceptions, emotions, needs,
desires, prejudices and biases (Blumenthal-Barby & Krieger 2015). These factors
unconsciously impair the judgment of individuals and they unwittingly take bad decisions. In
organizations too, decision makers face the same barriers to their decision making process.
Mostly, these biases are unconscious yet harmful for the organization (Barber & Budnick
2015). It can potentially destroy the credibility of the organization, reduce turnover and
destroy the organizational environment. In this essay, the internal and external factors that
influence perception have been explored. Moreover, the bias factors that can cloud judgment
have been analyzed. Additionally, the organizational risks of bad decision making and the
biases that influence them have been evaluated. Finally, recommendations have been made
that will help the organizations to mitigate those risks and take decisions that are based on
knowledge and logical thinking.
The factors that are responsible for changing our opinion and perceptions are
dependent upon the perceiver, perceived and the situation. These factors can be divided into
two parts: the internal factors and the external factors. Among the internal factors are the
needs and desires of the individual, the personality of the individual and the experience
gathered by the individual. The external factors are size, intensity, frequency and status
(Croskerry 2013).
Perception is largely dependent upon the needs and desires of the person at a specific
time. As the needs and desires of the person changes, so does his perception of things.
Personality has close connection to needs and desires of a person. Both of them influence the
other and can change each other. People judge situation according to their own personality.
For example, people who are well accepted among their peers perceive others as warm and

2PERCEPTION, BIAS AND DECISION MAKING
inviting. Experience changes how people perceive situations. Both positive and negative
experiences change the way people look at the world. People gather knowledge from
experiences and they use that experience to judge situations. People with more experience are
able to understand and criticize the stimuli better.
The size of a stimulus influences the perception of a person greatly. The larger the
object, the more it attracts attention. The same is true for intensity. Commonly, we pay more
attention to things or events that are loud or have impacting qualities. Frequency also
influences perception as the more we see an object or situation the more we become used to
their idea. An idea may at first occurrence seem unappealing. It generally changes after the
person comes across the same idea several times (Chuang 2013). The status of a person has
impact upon how they perceive a situation. Status is related to economic and social condition
and those factors influences perception greatly. This is the reason why superiors are able to
exert more pressure upon their subordinates; they are at a higher status in the organization.
People commit biases in many scenarios. These biases are mostly unconscious. There
are factors that impair the logical judgment and make them take decisions that have little or
no logical basis. The most common form of biases is called cognitive bias. These are
influenced by the worldview of the person. There are also statistical biases and prejudices
that impair the judgment of people to a great extent. The biases in a decision making process
are caused by errors in the process of information gathering and interpreting.
In organizations managers and entrepreneurs are required to make decisions
continuously. In these scenarios, there are two factors that affect their decision making. The
first factor is pressure of deadline and the second one is lack of resources. In most
organizations the decisions are made in time frame. This forces the entrepreneurs and
managers to take hasty decisions which might me erroneous. Lack of resources also might