BIASMAP – Developing a Visual Typology and Interface to Explore and Understand Decision-Making Errors in Management

Abstract

In this paper we develop a novel interactive and highly visual interface to make current research about cognitive biases in strategic decision-making processes widely available to non-experts in management, administration, and engineering. Cognitive biases play a major role in the process of strategic decisionmaking. Thus, the recognition, compilation, and understanding of these biases is crucial to develop approaches to debias decisions. The literature on cognitive biases is highly fragmented and includes various research fields. This makes it difficult to gain an overview or find relevant biases quickly. To structure this knowledge, we have developed a typology of cognitive biases based on existing classificatory frameworks and an integrative literature analysis. This led to a two-dimensional typology combining the psychological view on cognitive biases with a decision process-oriented perspective. As a result, knowledge about 187 cognitive biases that affects decision-making is presented in a practice-oriented structure (viewable at bias.visual-literacy.org).