Bias Binge #3 - What I don't know may hurt me

The Ambiguity Effect describes how we tend to avoid options that we consider vague or that we are unclear about. We stay away from uncertainty and are hence more inclined to gravitate towards an option for which the possible outcome is known to us.

Now the poster child to bring out the impact of the ambiguity effect has always been Motomethod - a motorbike repair shop in Canada. They actually made it easy and accessible for their customers to repair their own bikes by giving them the right tools and information... Take a look at the video below if you want to know more about them...

Another example of the ambiguity effect is our increasing dependance on reviews, be it for Uber, Amazon or Trip Advisor. The reviews serve as a means to take out any ambiguity we may have before our purchase. Making us a little less unsure and a little more in control of a choice we make.

But, I would like to bring this bias alive through a more recent social experiment. 

This was done by Paytm with Ruchi Narain for Women's Day. And when it made its rounds on my family whatsapp group, we were all very happy that we would not have stepped back on those financial questions. Well the truth is finance may not be so ambiguous to just a handful of women as one can see in the current cover story of Outlook Money. 

For the rest it is a topic that noone ever felt they should know more about. And the ambiguity bias ensures that they don't bother to get involved. Creating a vicisios cycle - the less they understand, the more they shy away. And the less they get their hands dirty, the more ambiguous it gets.

With the information overload we all have access to today this seems like an easy bias to overcome. Just be conscious of it and get to the bottom of anything you find too vague...