You might not know that the "noise" around you is affecting your thinking and problem solving. In this session, you will see ways to make your thinking clearer and your problem-solving more effective. Most of us know how cognitive biases affect our thinking and decision making, thanks to the work of Daniel Kahneman and his important book Thinking Fast and Slow. Fewer of us know how noise affects us. Noise here means the variability in inputs and cognitive processing we face when making individual and collective judgments. Noise comes from a variety of sources: the time of day, the weather, if our favorite sports team just won or lost. One study found that judges in Louisiana gave harsher sentences to kids, especially black kids, in the week after the LSU college football team lost a game. Everyone is now focused on reducing bias, but in many cases, noise is a greater source of error than bias. You will hear some surprising research about noise and learn ways for reducing noise. If you reduce noise, you will also reduce bias. As Kahneman has said, "Wherever there is judgment, there is noise and more of it than you think."

Learning Outcomes:

• Realizing that noise affects thinking more than bias.
• Realizing that addressing noise will also address bias.
• Adopting some noise hygiene approaches to help thinking and decision-making.