When a report by the world’s most influential development agency provides evidence that many of its staff are “biased” in their perceptions of the poor and their needs, one might expect eyebrows to be raised. When the president of that institution — the World Bank, no less — acknowledges the flaw and goes on to call for “measures to mitigate these biases, such as more rigorously diagnosing the mindsets of the people we are trying to help”, jaws should be dropping.

One example of the bias uncovered by the report team is particularly striking. The authors conducted a random survey to examine “judgment and decision making” among World Bank staff. Nearly 5,000 were invited to take part in the exercise, of whom 1,850 actually did — about half each from headquarters and country offices. Participants were asked to estimate how many of Nairobi’s poorest residents would agree with the statement that vaccinations caused sterilisation. The same statement was put to the residents themselves. The result was remarkable. Forty-two per cent of the bank’s staff estimated that the poor would agree with the statement. But when the statement was put to the residents, only 12 per cent agreed.

A similar gap between the bank’s assumptions and actual responses were found in Jakarta and Lima. In this case, staff predicted that many more poor residents would express feelings of helplessness and lack of control over their future than actually did.