There is a significant amount of discussion around bias in the workplace, and rightfully so, as 39 percent of employees report experiencing frequent biases in their work environment. Interestingly, alongside these conversations surrounding workplace bias, there exists a set of commonly-held biases about bias itself.

This article breaks down six examples of these biases about bias.

1. All biases are bad

The term ‘bias’ often carries negative connotations, leading people to adamantly deny the existence of their own biases. While it is true that biases can manifest as harmful prejudices, biases also play a crucial role in how we process information. Our sensory system receives an overwhelming 11 million bits of information per second, yet our conscious brains can only process around 50 bits per second. This information compression inevitably gives rise to cognitive biases, as individuals construct their own subjective reality based on their perception of incoming information.