RANKit – Reducing bias in multiple comparisons

TLDR

1. Put into the app all the things you’d like to compare/rank
2. Start the comparison/voting process
3. Choose the options you like better (with your own criteria) until the process ends
4. See all the things ranked with your subjective bias reduced

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How does it work?

The reduction is in theory coming from the fact that you’re not seeing and comparing all the things at once. Instead, you only see them paired – one pair after another, and the overall scoring is only revealed to you at the end of the process. It’s also way easier to choose one thing out of two rather than one out of five, for example.

If you’re only focusing on the pairs instead of the whole array of things, the resulting ranking is made faster and has reduced bias. It may allow you to have a clearer idea of yourself, your “real” preferences as well as what to do next.

It’s also very helpful to actually see the list of all alternatives rather than just keeping it in your mind and thinking you are considering all the options.

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Why I made it

There were two main reasons for the creation of this app:

1. I wanted a way to make analyzing choice alternatives easier and more reliable, and
2. Learn more about myself

¹ The first reason was connected to:

• simple decisions like e.g. which tablet to buy as well as
• more significant ones like e.g. which career path I’d rather pursue

² The latter mainly meant getting insights about my own attitudes, lifestyle preferences and unconsciously held value system. I assumed it’d support my identity formation process and development of social relations among other things.

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Development choices

I’ve decided to go with the Vanilla JavaScript approach to refresh my vanilla memory as I like doing from time to time. The app is basic enough that I could do it quickly without feeling that it’s holding me back in any way.

Additionally, even though the looks of the app are very minimalistic, I took care of them using TailwindCSS which always seems to drastically speed up my development of any app. The choice was therefore made for convenience, but being honest, I’m in love with Tailwind’s simplicity and intuitiveness, so I’m biased.

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Results and usage

The app is basic yet invaluable. Using it, I was able to:

• see the list of all alternatives and reject the ones I don’t really care about early
• reliably get more insights about my own attitudes and preferences in specific areas
• speed up decision-making processes by comparing available options pair-wise
• get rankings of reduced bias that stay in browser’s local storage for future comparisons and self-tracking

In terms of real life usage, I used the app in both previously stated areas to:

• help myself make decisions and
• learn more about myself, as well as
• teach my students about identity development and decision-making process
• do some “fun” group-choice exercises with students