Conquering Biases

No, we’re not departing from aviation-related information to give you a lesson in political correctness. But certain pilot biases can cause trouble.

Fred Simonds

Monday, February 19, 2024 at 08:00 AM ET

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Handsome middle age mature man wearing airplane pilot uniform with hand on head, headache because stress. suffering migraine.

Key Takeaways:

The article identifies cognitive biases like **expectation bias** (seeing or hearing what you expect) and **confirmation bias** (seeking evidence that supports a pre-formed belief) as significant causes of errors in aviation.
It also describes **normalization of deviance** (gradually accepting unsafe practices) and **procedural drift** (straying from established guidelines) as common human factors that degrade safety over time.
These unconscious biases and tendencies can lead to incidents, but they can be mitigated through self-training, actively questioning observations, rigorous adherence to procedures, and recognizing cognitive dissonance.

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Your home airport’s winds almost always favor Runway 30 departures via a left-turn taxi at Alpha. Today, the wind favors Runway 12. Reaching Alpha, which way should you turn? If you turned left or were so tempted, you fell into or narrowly avoided the expectation bias trap.

Expectation bias lurks in everything we do, especially things we do repetitively. When we get in a car, we expect it to start. When we turn on the tap labeled H, we expect hot water. Each time you taxi to Runway 30, expectation bias is strengthened. No wonder it so quickly becomes automatic.