Affinity bias

Affinity bias, also known as the similarity bias, similar-to-me effect, and the mini-me syndrome, refers to an implicit cognitive bias where people are favorably biased toward others like themselves.^[1] Those similarities may stem from a multiplicity of personal attributes including similarity in appearance, race, gender, socioeconomics, and educational attainment.^[1]^[2]^[3] Affinity bias can hamper creativity and collaboration through insular thinking.^[4]

People with similar personalities, backgrounds, and experience are able to more readily form social connections.^[5]

Workplace

Affinity bias is often present in the workplace and can lead to the subconscious filtering of candidates.^[6]^[7]^[8] In recruitment, candidates who attended the same university as the hiring manager may be given preference.^[6] When promoting candidates, a hiring manager may promote someone who shares a similar hobby, such as golf, over other qualified candidates.^[6] Though affinity bias may lead to unfair hiring and promotion practices, it can also serve to increase mentorship and endorsement such as through women's empowerment.^[9]

The bias can be mitigated by having managers find common ground with the employee, thus priming the manager to see the employee as part of their in-group.^[10] Firms can also counter the bias through implicit bias training and by having hiring and promotions be a data and metrics driven process.^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b Thakrar, Monica (Nov 19, 2018). "Council Post: Unconscious Bias And Three Ways To Overcome It". Forbes. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
^ "What Is Affinity Bias?: We tend to gravitate toward, and prefer, people like us (VIDEO)". LeanIn.Org. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
^ "Affinity Bias Overview: How to Avoid Affinity Bias". MasterClass. Nov 13, 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
^ Davis, Jeffrey (June 25, 2020). "The Bias Against Difference". Psychology Today. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
^ Grant, Georgina (August 9, 2018). "Similar-To-Me Bias: How Gender Affects Workplace Recognition". Forbes. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Scott, Catherine (27 March 2023). "How HR Can Identify and Overcome Affinity Bias in Hiring and the Workplace". Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR). Retrieved 12 June 2024.
^ Sears, Greg J.; Rowe, Patricia M. (2003). "A personality-based similar-to-me effect in the employment interview: Conscientiousness, affect-versus competence-mediated interpretations, and the role of job relevance". Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. 35 (1): 13–24. doi:10.1037/h0087182.
^ Shah, Salma (11 November 2010). "Equality: Unconscious bias and the mini-me syndrome". HR Magazine. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
^ Pilat, Dan; Krastev, Sekoul. "The Similar-To-Me Effect". The Decision Lab. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
^ Jones, Beth; Smith, Khalil; Rock, David (20 June 2018). "3 Biases That Hijack Performance Reviews, and How to Address Them". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
^ Mason, Kelli (4 August 2023). "Similarity Bias in Hiring: How HR Leaders Can Avoid It". Jobs Sage. Retrieved 13 June 2024.

v t e Biases
Cognitive biases	Acquiescence Ambiguity Affinity Anchoring Attentional Attribution Actor–observer Correspondence Authority Automation Availability Mean world Belief Blind spot Choice-supportive Commitment Confirmation Selective perception Compassion fade Congruence Cultural Declinism Distinction Dunning–Kruger Egocentric Curse of knowledge Emotional Extrinsic incentives Fading affect Framing Frequency Frog pond effect Halo effect Hindsight Horn effect Hostile attribution Impact Implicit In-group Illusion of transparency Mean world syndrome Mere-exposure effect Narrative Negativity Normalcy Omission Optimism Out-group homogeneity Outcome Overton window Precision Present Pro-innovation Proximity Response Restraint Self-serving Social comparison Social influence bias Spotlight Status quo Substitution Time-saving Trait ascription Turkey illusion von Restorff effect Zero-risk In animals
Statistical biases	Estimator Forecast Healthy user Information Psychological Lead time Length time Non-response Observer Omitted-variable Participation Recall Sampling Selection Self-selection Social desirability Spectrum Survivorship Systematic error Systemic Verification Wet
Other biases	Academic Basking in reflected glory Déformation professionnelle Funding FUTON Inductive Infrastructure Inherent In education Liking gap Media False balance Vietnam War Norway South Asia Sweden United States Arab–Israeli conflict Ukraine Net Political bias Publication Reporting White hat
Bias reduction	Cognitive bias mitigation Debiasing Heuristics in judgment and decision-making
Lists: General Memory

Affinity bias

Workplace

See also

References

Further reading