Anchoring bias: the stone that makes your courage flow

You remember it as if it were yesterday: at school, this performance in the amphitheater, in front of 50 people... where you made a fool of yourself. Your ears get hot just thinking about it. You have survived it, of course; but ever since that day, you know it: you are not good at oral presentation.

5 years later, the nightmare: your manager asked you to present your latest project in front of your entire department. This would greatly value your work, and increase your visibility — if only you were good at speaking. So the solution naturally makes its way into your mind: the surest way to avoid another failure is still not to try. Your manager can do the presentation, you will be content with your name at the bottom of slide 87.

What's going on in your head: the anchor bias

Here, you are dealing with a devious succession of three cognitive biases. To begin with, the Anchoring bias ensures that your first impression, that of your bad experience, remains firmly imprinted in your mind as a point of reference: I completely missed my presentation in 2015, so I'm bad at presenting. Behind, the attention bias will turn that first impression into a filter. Since you can't forget your failure, you'll tend to pay attention only to the things you're doing wrong at every opportunity: I use my hands too much, I stutter, I repeated the same word three times... And finally, icing on this poisonous cake, the confirmation bias will cement all these bad impressions. Because you've focused on the negative, your brain will use this perception to confirm and even weigh down the initial anchor: I was right to think I was bad, I only made mistakes this time.

According to B.J. Fogg (who we were talking about in the first article from the series), a behavior is triggered at the intersection of three factors: Behavior = Motivation x Capacity x Trigger. Even if you are fully motivated, you will be paralyzed if you do not feel able enough to do the action. Consequence: no action.

These biases have an impact on your sense of capacity through a distortion effect: you have an incomplete, biased image of reality. To get out of this vicious circle, and since you cannot trust your own perception, remove the subjective factor: Instead of looking for a sense of success, value the effort.

Les Nudges to the rescue: value your effort by quantifying it

The anchoring bias is resistant: of course, you only have one chance to make a first impression... But it is possible to divert your attention and confirmation biases, until you succeed in separating the way in which your first feedback experience took place, and your general ability to speak in public. To do this: focus on the actions taken to improve your presentations, and not on the perceived quality of these presentations.

Our advice: From now on, quantify the actions you are taking to make progress in presentation

why ? Quantifying your effort will have a double benefit. Not only does it allow you to make the action finite, that is, you define the conditions for the success of your action. But in addition, it is a protection to avoid minimizing your effort: you can always have a false perception of your level, but not of a concrete action!

how ? For example, you can define a duration: for 15 minutes, one hour, half a day... or a number of occurrences, for example: during your next three meetings.

Thanks to this very simple method, you reclaim your anchor and turn it to your advantage. Rather than a fatality, it will be a starting point: Admittedly, I did not shine during my 2015 rendition; but since then, I have made a lot of effort !

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