Glossary
Bounded awareness
What is bounded awareness?
Bounded awareness is failure to notice, seek, use or share relevant information that is reasonably accessible during a decision. The concept concerns which information people consider, not only how they reason about it afterward.
How it works
Chugh and Bazerman’s review connects inattentional blindness, change blindness, focalism and failures to share relevant group information. They describe a range of processes rather than one mechanism. A person may miss something visible, overlook a change, concentrate too narrowly on the main issue, or fail to bring useful information into a group discussion. Attention and motivation can both matter.
Example: a missing set of records
An auditor might concentrate on supplied figures and overlook a missing category of records. The numbers that are present can hold attention while the missing records go unnoticed. This is a hypothetical example.
Why it matters
You can reason carefully about the information in front of you and still miss the decision’s central issue. Ask what has been left out and who might have relevant information. In judging a past decision, check what was reasonably accessible at the time; hindsight can make an omission look more obvious than it was.