Overcoming Biases in Cross-Cultural Collaborations: Effective Psychology Tips
The human brain is an incredibly powerful tool, and its automatic responses can shape our perceptions of people from different cultures — often in negative ways. Due to various forms of exposure, our brains have learned, sometimes without us even realizing it, to view people who look or speak differently as untrustworthy or unreliable.
But when it comes to fostering cooperative relationships with people from culturally diverse backgrounds, our minds can sometimes get in the way. So what can we do to ensure our brains don’t trick us when working with people from different cultures?
In this blog post, we will go through how your brain is trying to trick you and psychology tips that could help you stay open-minded when collaborating with someone from a different culture.
How your brain is tricking you with biases and framing effects?
Our brains often make mistakes in how we think and understand things. This can happen because we are influenced by biases and framing effects. Biases are errors in our thinking that can cause misunderstandings, especially when communicating with people from different cultures.
Additionally, frames involve the method a person uses to interpret information in ways that may be misleading or inaccurate. For this reason, it’s important to keep biases and framing effects in mind when making decisions. With awareness of these common cognitive pitfalls, we can reduce our likelihood of making poor judgments or decisions.
Recognize projection bias
Projection bias explains our tendency to believe that other people think the same way we do, whether it comes to your personal values or cultural values. This means you might assume that someone else has similar motivations or wants the same things as you when, in fact, this might not be true at all.
To avoid being deceived by projection bias, try to find out what your co-workers’ cultural norms are, or consider making connections at multiple levels, so you know what everyone’s expectations are when you work together.
Understand cognitive biases and emotive reactions
Cognitive biases are quick ways our brains think that can cause us to have emotional reactions instead of logical ones. These emotional reactions are how we feel when something impacts us in a particular way, such as feeling happy, angry, or sad. Many things can influence these emotions, including our experiences, cultural background, cultural differences, and current circumstances.
Emotive reactions can have a big impact on how you think and act, and how you interact with others. This is especially true when working in unfamiliar cultural environments and with people from different cultures. Being aware of these reactions can help you to understand others better and make social situations easier.
These biases may exist without us even being aware of them. This causes you to make judgments about people without considering the facts of their situation accurately. Taking the time to listen to different perspectives and considering them when making decisions can help reduce cognitive biases.
Remember to consider confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is when we only look for and interpret information that supports our existing beliefs or biases. In cross-cultural communication, we might also use our cultural assumptions to understand interactions with others, which can lead to confirmation bias.
For instance, let’s say you are interacting with a person from a high-context culture, where people often use non-verbal cues and context to convey their message. However, you come from a low-context culture, where people usually rely on direct verbal communication.
In this case, you may not understand the meaning of the non-verbal cues that the person from the high-context culture is giving you. You may think that they are not interested in the conversation. But in reality, the person is just using their cultural communication style that may require you to be more perceptive and attentive to non-verbal cues to understand them better.
By understanding the cultural factors, you can avoid falling into the trap of confirmation bias and become more culturally sensitive in your communication.
Don’t forget framing effects
Framing effects refer to how we interpret information based on how it is presented. For example, if two job candidates have the same skills but one comes across as more likeable because they share the same values and attitudes as you do, you may choose them over the other candidate because of an emotional decision, rather than because of their actual merits.
To avoid these kinds of unintentional mismatches between workers and positions, work with colleagues in diverse cultures to increase your cultural knowledge.
Keep an eye on Social Desirability Effects
Social desirability effects happen when people change their answers or behaviours to look better in front of other people. You might do this because you feel like you need to fit in, or because you think it’s what people expect of you. This can also increase your culture shock since it creates interpersonal conflicts.
In certain societies, it might be more acceptable to prioritize the success of the group over individual achievements. For instance, in some Asian cultures, people focus more on group unity and social connection than individual accomplishments. This could result in individuals underplaying their personal achievements and giving credit to the group.
On the other hand, in individualistic cultures, such as Western cultures, people emphasize individual accomplishments. Therefore, it may be considered more socially desirable to be seen as confident and self-promoting. This may lead to individuals exaggerating their accomplishments or downplaying their weaknesses in order to appear more confident and impressive to others.
These examples show how people may act differently in social situations due to what is considered socially acceptable in their culture. It’s important to be aware of these differences when interacting with people from other cultures to avoid misunderstandings.
How to improve cross-cultural communication by tricking your brain?
Even though your brain will constantly to try trick you, there are several ways to overcome them. These strategies include focusing on similarities to build stronger relationships, becoming concious of your biases, building inclusive habits and embracing the unknown.
Focus on surprising similarities
To improve your relationship with someone from another culture, start by focusing on the things you have in common rather than the differences. This can help create a bond over shared experiences and interests.
However, it’s important to avoid assuming that everything is the same as in your own culture. This is a common mistake in cross-cultural communication.
Read the top 6 mistakes in intercultural communication.
Be aware of your bias
To discover any biases you may have, ask others for their perspective on how you come across and how you believe others view you. Consider what signals your biases give about you and other cultures. If these biases are not addressed, they may lead to unintended negative attitudes and misunderstandings towards other cultures.
Therefore, one of the most important things you can do to overcome cultural bias is to educate yourself about different cultures. This can help you to recognize and understand cultural differences and avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes or preconceived notions.
Learning about different cultural norms, values, and behaviours can also help you to communicate more effectively and build stronger relationships with people from different cultural backgrounds while reducing culture shock.
Create inclusive habits
To create an inclusive environment while communicating with people from different cultures, it’s important to regularly practice inclusive habits. This includes making an effort to involve everyone in conversations and being respectful of their time. Additionally, it’s useful to learn about cultural practices that affect communication such as language, body language and communication styles.
Manage conflicts by being aware of the external factors. Being mindful of these habits will help create an environment where everyone feels respected, accepted and included regardless of their cultural background.
Practice active listening
If there’s one thing both parties need from each other, it’s respect — which means actively listening to each other without interruption or judgement. Active listening is crucial for successful interaction! By doing this, you can learn about different perspectives without letting your own assumptions influence the conversation. This can help you avoid misunderstandings due to cultural diversity and communicate more effectively with people from different backgrounds.
You can read more tips on how to elevate your listening skills in this blog post.
Be open minded and avoid jumping to conclusions
When you talk to people, don’t be too quick to judge them based on your assumptions. This can lead to unfairness. Instead, try to get all the information and understand the whole situation before making any decisions. Treat people nicely, try to understand their point of view, and build mutual understanding.
Welcome the unexpected
Intercultural relationships are full of surprises, so expect to run into unexpected moments during conversations. You should try to find ways to understand each other’s culture. This could include responding without judgement when perspectives don’t align or being forgiving if an apology for miscommunication is needed later down the line. The clearer expectations are communicated upfront, the better chance there is for success in conversing across cultures!
When working with people from different cultures, it can be challenging. The important thing is to be mindful of your own mental biases, so you don’t get caught up in them. By understanding different biases like projection bias, cognitive biases, confirmation bias, and framing effect, as well as social desirability effects, you can develop effective strategies for successful collaboration regardless of everyone’s cultural backgrounds.
Want to learn more about bias and cross-cultural psychology? Let’s get in touch and discuss what kind of intercultural training is the best option for your company!
