Debiasing is the practice of noticing the cognitive biases that warp our thinking and deliberately correcting for them before they drive a decision. The biases below are some of the most studied in behavioural science — Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow is the classic introduction to why our intuition misfires so predictably.

Three biases worth watching for

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out, favour, and remember information that supports what we already believe — while quietly discounting anything that doesn’t.

Example: Prices rise two days in a row, you decide it’s a lasting trend, and you stock up today — paying attention to every signal that prices will keep climbing and ignoring the ones that say otherwise.

How to counter it: Deliberately go looking for the evidence that would prove you wrong, and ask someone who disagrees with you to make their case before you commit.

Overconfidence bias

The tendency to trust our own judgment too much, brushing past warning signs because we are sure we’re right.

Example: “My solution is clearly the best one — there’s no point seriously considering the alternatives.”

How to counter it: Run a premortem (a technique from psychologist Gary Klein). Imagine it’s a year from now and the decision has failed badly. Then ask: what went wrong, and what could we have done differently? Surfacing those failure modes in advance punctures false confidence.

Status-quo bias

The tendency to stick with what has worked before, even when the situation has changed — also called stability bias.

Example: Reaching for the strategy that solved the last problem and applying it to a new one without checking whether it still fits.

How to counter it: List the specific constraints of the current problem and ask honestly whether a fresh approach would suit it better. Pulling in a different point of view from the right people often reveals options the old playbook hides.

References

• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow — the foundational popular text on cognitive bias.
• Gary Klein, “Performing a Project Premortem” (Harvard Business Review) — the premortem technique for countering overconfidence.