Are data management practices leaving you susceptible to cognitive bias?

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Lax data management is leaving space for cognitive bias to creep in leading to misinterpretation of information and a lack of trust in using data to make business-critical decisions.

That’s according to Lyndon Apthorpe, Senior Value Optimisation Advisor at Domo. Speaking to Digital Balance clients recently, Apthorpe said: “Marketing data is polluted.”

The source of this pollution, according to Apthorpe, is single-use reporting and single-use data extractions. By trying to make sense of information in one system or across systems, data is losing its power and value. The manual handling of data, data aging and latency leave a gulf for error. And the greatest concern is the scourge of cognitive bias.

“Cognitive biases live in the space where there’s opportunity for list of peru cell phone numbers interference or opportunity for inferring what data is telling us rather than being structured and prescribed,” Apthorpe said.

By definition, cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that happens when processing and interpreting information. A myriad of biases fall under the heading of cognitive bias including confirmation bias when you favour information that aligns with your existing beliefs. Another, attentional bias, refers to the bias to pay attention to some things while ignoring others. Meanwhile, anchoring bias speaks to a tendency to rely on the first piece of information you learn.

According to data scientist Matthew Mayo, “Confirmation bias can lead to cherry-picking data and reinforcing pre-existing beliefs.”

There are plenty more biases where these ones came from. But whichever one you choose – and several could be at play at once – the end result is affecting the decisions and judgements you make. Decisions and judgements that should be better informed by the use of data.

With that in mind, cognitive bias could be losing your business money. A lot of money.

Data is meant to better inform the decisions we make. But if we’re not using it properly, it could have the opposite effect.