“Implicit bias” exists when we unconsciously hold attitudes towards others
or associate stereotypes with them.
For example, we often harbor negative stereotypes about others
without consciously realizing that we do so.
Implicit bias, which is also called “unconscious bias” or “implicit social cognition,”
is a prejudice that is deep-seated within the brain, below the conscious level.
Studies have demonstrated implicit bias against racial groups, genders, LGBTQ,
and other marginalized groups.
We may even be prejudiced against our own group, although we tend to favor our in-group
with positive stereotypes and disfavor out-groups with negative stereotypes.
The immediate feeling you get, or the immediate thoughts you have about a person... an assumption,
just anything you feel really stems somewhere from an experience you've had or your upbringing
Depends on the region you're from, the country you're from, the background you grew up in
that shapes the person's unconscious bias.
I think sometimes you don't even realize it but your own actions, maybe the way you treat others
as opposed to treating others that look like you, or that act like you, or that are your friends.
Implicit bias often runs counter to people’s conscious, expressed beliefs.
Few physicians espouse racially discriminatory views, and yet doctors tend to recommend less
pain medication for black patients than for white patients with the identical injury.
In other words, people can be explicitly unbiased, yet implicitly biased, according to psychologist
Daniel Kelly and colleagues.
One of my closest friends since high school, we've worked on a lot of projects together,
we've been in a lot of classes together.
Sometimes we'd be working together in a group project for example and she would say stuff like
"Oh, you're good at math, you're good at science, here you can take this part of the project or something."
I don't hold it against her or anything, she doesn't mean any harm by it.
But obviously there's that implicit bias or stereotype that Asians are better at math and science.
Implicit bias has been found in a large array of studies using various tests, but much of
the evidence for the phenomenon comes from Harvard University’s Project Implicit website,
home of the Implicit Association Test , or the IAT.
Literally millions of people have visited this site and taken various tests that ask
them to respond rapidly to questions that require them to associate blacks or whites,
males or females, or young or old, etc., with positive or negative words.
Most of the implicit biases that I've run into are probably positive ones.
Things that come with being a white male and having height and having a good voice and things like that.
Professor Nosek and colleagues tested more than 700,000 subjects and found that more
than 70% of white subjects more easily associated white faces with positive words
and black faces with negative words, concluding that this was evidence of implicit racial bias.
In fact, additional evidence indicates that measures of implicit bias better predict people’s conduct
than measures of explicit bias.
I think that if you are anyone, to be blunt, that is not a white male, you potentially feel that implicit bias.
Maybe you're just looking for someone that is like you because you like you
and so you want be around more people like you,
but what's really rooted under that is that you potentially don't think that someone else is as smart or as capable
and that is coming from a place of implicit bias.
Now here's some good news.
Various scientists have criticized the IAT.
They point out, for example, that individuals who take the test on different dates often
score substantially differently.
Even IAT supporters admit that implicit bias, at least as demonstrated by the test, is widespread
but relatively minor and has only a small impact upon people’s real-world actions.
In other words, the results of the test are not strong enough to predict particular behaviors
by individual people.
However, let’s not get too comfortable.
Even if the IAT cannot predict the future conduct of any one individual on a given occasion,
it still indicates how groups of people will act on average, and that is worrisome.
For example, few people openly advocate for discrimination in hiring, but white applicants
receive 50% more responses from potential employers than do black applicants with the same resume.
Likewise, college professors are substantially more likely to answer student e-mails if the
students’ names indicate that they are probably white than if the names sound like
they belong to black students.
And in one study online course instructors were 94% more likely to respond to discussion
posts by white male students than by other students.
There are a lot of opportunities to promote people within the workplace.
It doesn't happen because of different biases.
People assume, you know, a woman is of a certain age or they're married and you think
"oh she's gonna wanna have kids" so we're not gonna give her this really tough big project.
When I graduated from West Point in 2009, I went to my first organization, the first unit assignment.
I was the only Latino officer in a group of about 100 other officers.
Yeah, I think there was a lot of hesitation in really following my lead as a leader for the organization.
I think it hindered in some way like the ability for us to build cohesive trust within our organization
and really have that going into a combat environment.
Because implicit bias operates at a mostly unconscious level, it is difficult for individuals to overcome.
No existing training regime has proven particularly effective at de-biasing implicit bias.
But, fortunately, some research shows that stereotypes can be unlearned and that safeguards
can be put in place to minimize their impact.
For example, women used to make up only a relatively small percentage of the musicians in orchestras.
But when orchestras began holding blind auditions where the applicants played behind a curtain
and their genders were unknown to the judges, the percentage of women chosen to play in
symphony orchestras doubled.
Perhaps we can put a dent in implicit bias after all.
These biases are sometime so deep rooted within us or within our culture
that we don't even realize that they are biases.
We can have a mutually beneficial conversation and really benefit from learning from each other
and really understanding that we're not all that different.
Listen. Really absorb the experiences of those around you,
especially those who come from backgrounds that are unlike yours.
Learn something new about a person, and then that will kind of help shift that bias
because now you've actually asked that person or now you get to know that person.
There's so many opportunities to engage with others, to say I don't want to do this again,
can you help me not do that? And people are willing to have those conversations.