Speaker defines affinity bias as favoring candidates based on trivial shared traits (e.g., appearance, shared background, admired employers) and warns that hiring for an undefined "culture fit" permits personal affinity to drive poor decisions. The recommended remedy is to define cultural fit concretely in terms of company values and observable behaviors (collaboration, adaptability, problem-solving, customer focus) so hiring judgments focus on job-relevant attributes rather than whether you'd "get along" socially.
Chapters
What is affinity bias? Well, this is where we're more likely to favor those who have who we have an affinity towards based on highly trivial criteria. For example, I like them because they wore this cool outfit and I think they must be really cool or they went to a really prestigious college or they worked out at this incredible company that I idolize. Usually we favor those who we get along with. There's a bit of a conundrum when it comes to this because we often tasked with hiring for culture fit. Well, culture fit is toxic because it's never clearly defined. Therefore people will define it themselves and we all have our own interpretations of what that means. If you like a candidate because you believe you'll get along well with them and that's your reason why you should hire them, you're probably making a dreadful hiring decision. Would I go for a beer with this person? Is not a question you should ask yourself about a job candidate is. It is not relevant and has no bearing on their skills or their suitability for the job. But system one, in our brains, is going to take over here. If you don't like this person, you'll Never let System 2 make a hiring decision to hire them. You'll come up with all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't hire them. So how do we use affinity bias to nudge us to make the right hiring decision? It starts with defining really clearly what cultural fit means with very concrete examples. It should be based on your company's values and behaviors. Do you believe this candidate demonstrates the right behaviours and aligns with your values? Do they have the attributes that are essential to get the job done, like collaboration, that they get things done? They're adaptable, they're a problem solver, they focus on the customer. If yes, then you will get along. That's what we mean by culture fit, not are they good fun.
