Surrounded by idiots? It may be a problem of speed

When someone new enters our group, we judge them for all manner of things. Clothing, accent, gender and height are just a few examples that will contribute to the person we assume them to be based on first impressions. These biases are nothing new. The way they harm a group’s cohesiveness and ability to collaborate is nothing new. The list of biases being addressed however, continues to evolve thanks to research in psychology, behavioural science and neuroscience. For anyone managing a team, this continuous updating of knowledge is crucial. It helps keep you in check with how you’re treating people in your team and how you can help your team work effectively together.

When it comes to Diversity & Inclusion solutions, there’s a bias to do with intelligence that’s often overlooked. It’s to do with the speed at which we live our lives and perform different tasks. More importantly, it’s to do with how quickly we perform those tasks relative to those around us. If you’re an energiser bunny sort of team leader and you’re convinced that you’ve been lumped with a bunch of idiots, this bias may be a reason for poor group cohesion and you may be unwilling to delegate tasks/decisions or empower your team. If you join a team and find that nobody will give you work even when you’re convinced that you’re capable, this may be the problem. If new additions shift the team dynamic and individual performance changes, this could be the cause as those who don’t fit the new norm become disheartened, disengaged and contemplate leaving.

The technical term for this unconscious bias, at least when it comes to things that aren’t human is anthropocentrism, specifically timescale anthropocentrism.

Typically used to shape our interaction with animals, it’s arguably just as applicable to our interaction with other people and even AI. In a book called The Mind Club by Daniel M Wegner & Kurt Gray, the authors discuss research examining how our brains assign lower intelligence not only to those animals that move slowly but also to those animals that move quickly in comparison to ourselves. The greater the difference in speed, the less intelligent our brain decides the subject to be (see below image). Just as we’re programmed to protect children and the elderly who we see as somewhat helpless or dependent on us, the smarter we perceive an animal to be, the more inclined we are to protect it in much the same way.

This unconscious bias isn’t exclusively limited to animals though. It’s just as influential in shaping the interactions we have with other people.

As comedian George Carlin would ask his audience, “Have you ever noticed that anyone going slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a moron?”

Whether it’s the person dawdling as they shuffle along the sidewalk or the employee who takes twice as long to get a report to you as someone else in the team, people make assumptions about intelligence based on the speed at which others do things relative to how they themselves would. This is an example of priming which feeds the brain a narrative based on what we observe and influences how we behave in response. In this example, it can have serious implications, especially when it comes to the workplace. After all, the smarter we perceive another person to be, the more inclined we are to trust and listen to them. The dumber they are, the more critical we become of their every action, in turn creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts as their confidence declines and probability of making mistakes increases.

How might it play out in the workplace?

You’re most likely to encounter the problem of biases around intelligence either when you’re joining a new team or when the team dynamic changes because of a new addition. How this affects you depends on the role you take. If you’re the outsider but in control, the effect will be very different to if you’re a new joiner starting at the bottom of the ladder and required to prove yourself to get anywhere.

Sitting over a pot of tea and fresh brownies, I recently discussed the second scenario with a friend. She’d been working in a company for almost 7 years, consistently under the same manager. At the time she joined the small team, most of her team approached work as a means to get paid so they could live their lives outside of the office. The one exception was the team lead. An energiser bunny, the team lead operated in what seemed to be two polar opposite environments. Those she reported to ran at the same speed as her while those who reported to her moved at a much slower pace. Having climbed her way up in this company, she’d never really managed other staff in former roles which is likely why the differing approaches weren’t an issue in the past. Even if she’d had biases that suggested her team were less intelligent and capable than her because of the slower pace at which they moved, she’d never known different and so the rest of the team would have been none the wiser. Of course, when a new team member who ran at the same pace as the team lead and had similar experience to her joined, the difference likely became very salient. All of a sudden, my friend’s inability to read her boss’s mind became a problem. She watched as other team members were criticised, pressured or edged out and started to panic. Working as she always had, she continued to meet her deliverables but this no longer seemed good enough. Her slower pace meant that she was now seen as less intelligent and in this way not meeting expectations.

How can you overcome these bias barriers?

If you find yourself in a situation of me vs you and the point of perceived differentiation is intelligence, you might want to consider whether this bias is at play. Even if you’re unable to make other people change, the simple knowledge that this may be the cause of their behaviour can have a huge impact on how you look at the situation. Whether it gives you a way to protect your self worth and confidence or gives you a greater level of patience and compassion for those you are working with, it can help you take a step back from the emotional narratives that may otherwise influence your actions.

So how do you work out if this unconscious bias may be at fault?

1. Ask yourself whether you feel like one of the team

If you already feel the me vs you narrative is running, consider why this may be the case and if it’s directly related to work or life outside of work. If you do feel like this is a work problem, consider the ways in which you feel different to see if other biases are at play or if it may have been something related to a specific incident. If you feel like your team doesn’t treat you like you’re smart or you treat your team like they’re not smart, consider when you started to feel that way and whether this bias may be a factor.

2. Observe

If you’ve established a suspicion that perceived intelligence is a problem, the second thing to do is look for signals in the environment as the problem may be to do with other assumptions such as how much experience you have or what background you’ve come from.

• Do you speak at a different speed to the rest of your team?
• Do you move around the office at a different speed?
• Do you perform tasks at a different speed?

If you answered yes, then the possibility that this unconscious bias is causing problems could be more likely.

3. Test

Having established a hypothesis, it’s important to test the theory. Otherwise, all you have is an assumption.

One way to test this is by changing the signal that’s priming the behaviour. For example, if the speed at which you work is something that would take a while to change, look for other ways you interact with your team. Whether it’s the speed that you talk in conversation or even how quickly you all eat lunch together, see if changing pace to align with them helps. You’re then looking for subtle ways in which the interaction changes (ie they might start delegating more work to you or praising what you do). Remember though, even at this point, all you have is a potential correlation, not a direct cause.

Another way to overcome the problem is by challenging the assumption or narrative using socratic thinking. If you think someone isn’t intelligent, look for a task that’s aligned with the expected skill set and see if they can do it (just be careful of biases that can sabotage this effort). Similarly, if you’re the one in question, seek out tasks that demonstrate your abilities or find examples of past behaviour to illustrate it for you. Alternately, speak to other people you work with to see if it is just the one person or group that has that narrative.

*A note for those who join a group and feel like their intelligence is questioned* While the first temptation is of course to confront the other person, this is rarely an effective first strategy for dealing with unconscious bias. Rather, you typically want either an element of surprise that they get to by themselves or enough evidence to make them reconsider their own behaviour and what may be driving it.