Is it Confirmation Bias?

In Episode, we reflect on a point made by one of Safeti Podcast guests around moving from looking for the absence of negatives towards the presence of positives. What does that mean for a HSE professional?

The question we ask here is - Are you recognising and using the positive actions that happen currently to help you move forward, or are you waiting for the next negative event?

Thinking about the principle of 'what you seek, ye shall find', we wonder is all of that looking for negatives resulting affecting our decision-making.

Is the presence of 'zero accidents' leading us to feel like everything is OK, when in fact it's not. In the same way, does the presence of a negative indicate that things must be bad?

The inherent confirmation bias could be leading us to miss the bigger picture.

We shouldn't look at either in isolation, and lean into the presence of positives to sustain performance and create a robust, innovative work environment.

What is confirmation bias? Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses.

Is it Confirmation Bias?: Additional Resources

Related Episodes: Behavioural Science with Bob Cummins, Improving Internal Communications

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