Forbes “Innovative Leaders” list created a problem for the magazine this week. Only one woman appeared on the list of 100. Why? The pool of CEO’s and founders of the largest public companies included few women. The editor of Forbes admits this error, (read here)

but overlooks the larger one: confirmation bias.

Three men were responsible for the Forbes’ list. How much did their ingrained expectations lead to a list so radically skewed toward men that any woman would have recognized the problem in a heartbeat?

Confirmation bias is a problem across corporations, one that deserves more attention so that another embarrassing and damaging study like “(Male) Innovative Leaders” doesn’t happen again. Read about confirmation bias here.