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The Art of Perception: Analyzing Information, with Amy Herman, Lawyer, Art Historian, and Author, The Art of Perception
I think what clouds our ability to be really, really clear analysts is, unfortunately, another A and the word is assumption. When we are analyzing information, we often make assumptions about the information and we make those assumptions based on our biases. And it’s one of those instances, again, where I ask individuals to step back. And I want to be clear that I’m not anti-assumption. I’m not anti-bias and I’m not anti-inference, we all make them and need them to do our jobs effectively. We live and work according to the biases that we have and years and years ago, or throughout evolution, I should say our biases dictated our survival. We did certain things because it was a matter of survival. To become aware of your biases is not an easy thing to do. You have to be very mindful, but if I can just ask individuals to step back from that assumption, when they’re doing the analysis, and again, lightning speed, to step back and say, “Oh, I’m assuming that all people that wear yellow shirts speak loudly,” I’m just giving a crazy example.
And then you have to step back and say, “Well, a minute, maybe that isn’t really true. Maybe I’m not justified in relying on the assumption that all people that wear yellow shirts speak loudly.” And people put in all kinds of assumptions about ethnicities and sexual orientation and sexual identity and people make assumptions. My best piece of advice about analysis, is to be aware of the assumptions that might be underlying how you prioritize that information. When you step back, sometimes you’re going to act according to your biases and sometimes you’re not. You’re going to say, “You know, I’m not really biased here. I’m being as objective as possible.” But when you think you’re acting towards a bias, look at what I call the totality of the circumstances. Look at the whole picture. Look at where you are, who are the actors, what’s happening. And if you think that you can make this assumption, or your bias fits in with the totality of the circumstances, then you’re okay to go forward.
You can justify why it is you’re acting according to the bias, but if you can’t fit it into the totality of the circumstances, if you can’t fit it into the big picture of where you are, then you need to step back and say, “You know what? I need to be more objective about this. I am acting according to my biases.” And it means stepping back, it means self recognition, which is hard work. To say, “You know what? I’m saying something, that’s not fair. I’m making a generalization here, where even though I’ve been doing it for years, I’m not really justified in making this generalization.”