| Availability heuristic |
Bias to rely on information that is readily available. We tend to remember information that is consistent with our prototypes. |
| Backfire effect |
Bias wherein we strengthen previous beliefs as a reaction to disconfirming information even though it does not make logical sense. |
| Base rate neglect |
Ignoring data base rate information in favor of anecdotal evidence. |
| Benevolent sexism |
Belief held by men and women that women need to be saved by men. This can be the foundation of the White Knight. |
| Bystander effect |
Avoiding action when viewing a negative situation because you assume others will step in. Important for Bystander interventions for sexual harassment or other bias. |
| Cognitive Dissonance |
The uncomfortable feeling when your beliefs and behaviors contrast. Part of the reason that Team Players uphold the social structure. |
| Confirmation bias |
Focusing on information that confirms beliefs and ignoring information that does not. |
| Decoy effect |
Potential for changing preferences between two options (A or B) by adding a third option (C) that is more similar to A or B. Can be used to increase hiring of women and minorities by adding more than one to a finalist slate. |
| Endowment effect |
Feeling of loss aversion that causes us to not want to give something up that we used to have. Giving up power feels worse than never having had it. |
| Equity bias |
Need for us to feel that like we are treated fairly. Important for all leaders to consider and ensure that transparency is used to show people that practices are equitable. |
| Framing effect |
Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented. Sending people to bias training might be perceived more negatively than team building. |
| Gender role bias |
Expectation that women will be kind, caring, sensitive whereas men will be strong, assertive, confident. |
| Groupthink |
Tendency to go along with a solution to avoid upsetting a cohesive group. |
| Hostile sexism |
Overtly negative beliefs about women as being incompetent and wanting to control men. |
| Ingroup bias |
Giving preferential treatment to others who are members of your own group. |
| Ironic thought suppression |
The phenomenon of trying to ignore thinking about something that causes us to focus on it all the more. |
| Just-world hypothesis |
Desire to believe that the world is fundamentally just or fair that causes us to rationalize injustice as deserved by the victim(s). |
| Mere exposure effect |
The fact that we irrationally like things just because we are more familiar with them. |
| Moral licensing |
The tendency of a track record of non-prejudice to increase subsequent prejudice. |
| Optimism bias |
Overestimating positive outcomes, which is the basis of the Optimist. |
| Ostrich effect |
Ignoring an obvious (negative) situation like the pervasiveness of sexual harassment. |
| Outgroup homogeneity bias |
Seeing people in your in-group as relatively more varied than members of other groups. Members of outgroups are seen as more similar to each other which allows us to view and remember people in a stereotypical way. |
| Reactance |
Doing the opposite of what someone wants you to do to maintain your freedom of choice. Can cause people to avoid diversity initiatives because they believe that they are being forced on them. |
| Shared information bias |
Tendency for group members of homogeneous groups to discuss shared information more than information that only one of some members are aware. One of the main reasons that diversity of thought is so helpful. |
| Status quo bias |
The tendency to like things to stay relatively the same. |
| System legitimizing myths |
Creating arguments that serve to defend the status quo of existing social, economic, and political arrangements. |
| WaMaNaC |
Bias that women and minorities are less competent than White men. |
| Zero-sum bias |
Incorrectly viewing situations to be like a zero-sum game so that one person or group must lose if another gains. |
