A framework of cognitive biases that might influence talent identification in sport

Cognitive biases impair effective talent identification in sport and thereby can impact the long-term success of sport organisations. However, a framework is lacking to identify and overcome those biases. The aim of this paper was to develop a framework of cognitive biases that could influence talent identification in sport. We reviewed the scientific and popular literature and identified 38 biases that we rated likely to impact decisions when making judgements of talent. We used cluster analysis to classify the biases into a taxonomy of five clusters: (1) sequential effects that might influence decisions based on the order in which information occurs (e.g. the anchoring bias); (2) presentation effects that could influence decisions according to how information is presented or gathered (e.g. the framing effect); (3) cognitive models that may influence decisions according to the observer's mental understanding of the world (e.g. confirmation bias); (4) association effects that could influence decisions according to (often false) relationships identified by the observer (e.g. correlation bias); and (5) egocentric effects that might influence decisions according to the observer's view of themselves and their position in society (e.g. bandwagon effect). The results provide a framework for uncovering biases that might influence talent identification in sports.