Bias: Three fingers pointing back! We must cultivate empathy as a tool to prevent bias

Brands need to address bias by developing empathy and approaching every stage of a project with empathy at the forefront of their minds, not merely as an add-on or afterthought.

Introduction

Diagnosing research and strategy error in hindsight is far easier than cultivating institutional self-awareness and tools to preempt its occurrence in the first place. As an industry, we have become obsessed with the powers of big data, more data, automation, and speed. Yet Brexit, the US election, Uber, United Airlines, and many other examples show that, while important and valuable, data alone does not overcome the fundamental challenges facing our industry. Bias, stereotyping, and a lack of empathy and deeper understanding are still rampant. Great efforts are being made to address these issues, for example, through better sampling and...

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