Making a fair decision when bias is held on a subject - Essay Example

MAKING A FAIR DECISION WHEN BIAS IS HELD ON A of The aspect of bias presents itself in a way during decision making processes in which case a person is inclined or holds an outlook from a partial perspective. This is factored in a way that the person fails or refuses to consider that there are issues of merit to be considered in the decision making process where alternative views could possibly work out very effectively. According to DellaVigna & Kaplan (2007), bias emanates from the cultural contexts in which it is implicitly learned.

Bias may be developed towards an individual, an ethnic group, a class of people, religion, theoretical paradigms among many other aspects. This study is based on the thesis statements stating that “self-regulation is one way that a fair decision can be made when one holds bias on a given subject”. This will be expressed by the explanation emanating from the findings as indicated from the following context. Self-regulation, according to Gilovich, Griffin, & Kahneman (2002) refers to a sitaution where a person or organization adheres to issues as regarding legal, ethical or th standards of safety instead of having outside factors determining the decision making process.

That is to say that an action odf decision must have a situational setting. The situational setting has basic rules and laws that determine the required end point in which case there is a strong positive out turn on the issue. As much as self-regulation has its level of conflict of interest, it is worth noting that there are no perfect decisions and each decision follows laid down rules (Starzak, 2012). Moreover, the aspect of self regulation considers wider perspectives from the individual to organizational level.

However, there are also situation in which a group or individuals are thriving in unethical situations (Rezende, 2009). Consider the aspect of a bureacucratic society. If the society is asked to eliminate such, it may consider eliminating the respective unethical aspects witnessed as opposed to the ideal behaviour on the whole. That is a short run perspective (Starzak, 2012). Avoiding the issue of regulatory capture is an effective way of developing fair decision making (Rezende, 2009). The regulatory capture would consider that there are situations in which individuals with high stakes would want to advance their interests at the expense of the vast majority who have low stakes in the matter.

Again, it will be a responsible issue to make sure that effective regulation of the same issue is adhered to in view to making sure that rational decision making is effectively reached (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2007). Application of reporting bias is also an aspect that can be used to remain rational in the decision making practices. In this case, undesirable or unethical issues are effectively suppressed during a decision making process so that the aspect of rationality is effectively implemented.

In this case, the decision making process will consider the fact that there are many issues associated with decision making process that can hinder the same. In conclusion, it is noted that a decision making process will never lack prejudices and other issues that would create a deviation from the main process. Therefore, continual application of regulation, either at individual or organizational level has been the main factors determining the process of avoiding bias and making decisions rational.

References DellaVigna, S., & Kaplan, E. (2007). The Political Impact of Media Bias. Stockholm : Stockholm University. Gilovich, T., Griffin, D., & Kahneman, D. (2002). Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rezende, L. (2009). Biased procurement auctions. Economic Theory, 38(1), 201. Starzak, T. (2012). Papineau’s Theoretical Rationality and the Anthropological Difference. Philosophia, 40(3), 473-482.