Seeing what you want to see: People frequently look for information that supports their existing instinct or point of view and avoid information that contradicts it. This bias affects where managers look for information and how they interpret the information they find. People tend to give too much weight to supporting information and too little to information that conflicts with their established viewpoints.

Managers must be honest with themselves about their motives and to examine all the evidence with equal rigor.

Having a devil’s advocate to argue against a decision can avoid this decision trap.

LO.1