Our brains have evolved to process certain information in the background to avoid over-inundating our conscious brain which is busy making active decisions. Because of this, you may not even notice that you find yourself more comfortable around someone you perceive as similar to yourself, or perhaps not thinking as highly of somebody who failed to make a positive first impression. These are thoughts and judgments that often don’t even come to the forefront of our brain, we don’t always consciously understand why we feel about an individual the way we do.
This tendency can be helpful in everyday life and social situations, but when you’re a hiring manager trying to make an objective decision about a group of candidates it’s important to be aware of these subconscious biases so that you can be proactive about avoiding them. Let’s look at 4 of the more common rater errors and ways to avoid them:
