What is affinity bias and how you can avoid it?

Most of us like to think of ourselves as fair and balanced individuals who make decisions based on facts and logic. However, although we do our best to uphold these standards we set for ourselves, the truth is that our subconscious mind influences our decisions in many ways. Affinity bias is one of these ways, but luckily you can reduce its influence on your decisions.

What is affinity bias?

Affinity bias is a term that describes our tendency toward preferring people who look and act like other people that we hold in high regard or like ourselves. The similarities that may trigger an affinity bias range from physical appearance to hobbies, preferences, cultural backgrounds, shared past experiences, and many other ways in which two people may be similar. While prioritizing those sharing your beliefs and values is the main effect of affinity bias, its inevitable side effect is the marginalization of those who look or act differently.

Affinity bias is a type of unconscious bias, a set of attitudes that subconsciously alter the way we feel about those around us. Some are part of us, while others get absorbed throughout our lives by observing those around us as they engage in certain behaviors. Besides affinity bias, other types of unconscious biases are as follows:

• Confirmation bias: The tendency to mainly look for and accept new information that confirms what we already believe
• Appearance bias: Unconsciously judging people based on various physical attributes, like height, weight, and overall attractiveness
• Gender bias: Believing that someone is or isn’t capable of various endeavors solely based on gender
• Attribution bias: Attributing various characteristics of a person to unrelated actions
• Authority bias: The tendency to treat the opinion of an authority figure with more respect than a similarly valuable opinion of someone who doesn’t hold a high-level position
• Age bias: Attributing characteristics solely based on someone’s age, like considering young people too inexperienced and older adults too outdated
• Conformity bias: The overall tendency of unintentionally mimicking other people’s behavior and beliefs instead of forming our own

Examples of ways in which affinity bias can affect the workplace

While affinity bias may not always be harmful in your personal life, as it may bring you closer together with like-minded individuals, it’s discriminating when displayed in the workplace, both by employers and employees. It can be particularly detrimental when an organization or department isn’t recruiting with diversity in mind and generally treating its employees solely on their professional merit. These situations are some examples of how affinity bias can influence workplace decisions:

Affinity bias in job interviews

Given that hiring managers have little time to consider all candidates who apply for a position, job interviews are the type of situation when unconscious biases are likely to appear. The recruiter’s affinity bias can manifest in many forms, such as viewing a candidate more favorably because the individual had a similar upbringing or has identical physical features as one of the recruiter’s children.

Displaying this bias can affect the accuracy of the hiring process in two different ways. On the one hand, having an affinity for a particular candidate will improve the individual’s chances of getting the job over potentially more qualified candidates. On the other hand, if a recruiter resonates with the candidate, the recruiter is likely to develop a rapport with the candidate, which can help the individual applying for the job perform better during the interview.

Affinity bias in professional advancement opportunities

Affinity bias displayed by recruiters and managers affects the recruitment process and can also influence which people advance in their roles. Company leaders are generally more likely to promote employees who share some of their characteristics, as they tend to emphasize their professional journey in greater ways.

Wanting to help someone similar to you achieve one’s potential isn’t necessarily harmful. However, if the promotion comes at the expense of a more qualified employee who doesn’t share any of the boss’s characteristics, this promotion decision may affect both employees’ career trajectories. It can also affect the company’s future growth, as the lack of top qualified employees reaching higher positions in the organization may reduce productivity and profitability.

Affinity bias in workplace decisions and strategies

A manager’s affinity bias goes beyond cases when the individual hires or promotes new employees. It can manifest itself in everyday interactions. For example, affinity bias may cause a company leader to emphasize an idea formulated by someone similar to the leader and to whom the individual can personally relate. Displaying this bias in a managerial role affects the organization because it minimizes or ignores the work of other employees, leading to a lack of different perspectives. It also affects the accomplishments of those who get overlooked. These individuals can perceive their ideas will always be undervalued and inhibit their creativity in the future.

Tips on how to avoid letting affinity bias affect your professional decisions

While eliminating any unconscious bias is very challenging, you can take steps to minimize its impact. Some of them are:

• Admit its existence: Our subconscious bias makes it very difficult to process and admit by our conscious minds. When trying to overcome any bias, you should recognize its existence and accept that you must address it.
• Make hiring applications anonymous. You can avoid subconsciously favoring a job candidate with a similar name or gender to yours by making all job applications completely anonymous. This way, you can be sure you’ll judge each candidate solely on professional accomplishments and acquired skills.
• Create a diverse interview panel. You can reduce affinity bias during the actual interview by forming an interview panel with employees and managers with different appearances and from different backgrounds. This way, different affinity biases displayed by each panel member are likely to cancel each other out, with the most qualified candidates prevailing.
• Expand your social circle. You can also take steps to limit your affinity bias in your personal time. Interacting with a diverse bunch of people can help you overcome the tendency to gravitate toward those who look and act like you.
• Actively listen to others. Most elements that create affinity bias are superficial, like appearances and overall behavior. By actively listening to a diverse group of people, you can gradually gain the ability to see beyond these characteristics and understand how other people think and formulate ideas.
• Find common characteristics with everyone you meet. You’re likely to share some attributes regarding your background, behavior, and preferences with most people you meet, even if they’re not immediately apparent. Make an effort to look for them in everyone you meet, and you can expand your affinity to include everyone.

With the world as diverse as it is, surrounding ourselves with only those who look and think like ourselves can be a highly restrictive experience. Making an effort to reduce your affinity bias can lead to new opportunities both personally and professionally by exposing you to various perspectives and ways of doing things.

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