In Blindspot, authors Banaji and Greenwald explain the extent to which our perceptions of social groups—without our awareness or conscious control—shape our likes and dislikes and our judgments about people’s character, abilities, and potential. Blindspot not only makes us become aware of our unconscious bias, it also helps us align our behavior with our intentions.
How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? Eberhardt exposes racial bias at all levels of society, then offers tools to address it.
Robbins explores unconscious bias in many of its forms, including: availability bias, confirmation bias, anchoring bias and others. Dr. Robbins helps readers gain deeper insight into the role our brains play in shaping our thoughts and actions, and what we can do to be more curious and open-minded in our diverse world.
The hidden brain is the voice in our ear--that we're never aware of--when we make the most important decisions in our lives. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. Vedantam illuminates the dark recesses of our minds but also shows how we can compensate for our blind spots.
To be human is to be biased. From this simple truth, nationally recognized diversity expert Howard J. Ross explores the biases we each carry within us and how unconscious bias impacts our day-to-day lives. More importantly, he answers the question: “Is there anything we can do about it?” by providing behaviors that the reader can use to disengage the impact of their own biases.
Author, speaker and CEO, Valerie Alexander, explains how the human brain instinctively reacts when encountering the unexpected, like saber-toothed tigers or female tech execs, and proposes that if we have the courage to examine our own behavior when faced with the unfamiliar, we can take control of our expectations, and by doing so, change our unconscious bias.
Stereotypes can influence our perception of who's the "right fit." They may create a road block towards our destination.
Streamed film. 1 hour 28 minutes. Kanopy. As humans, we are biased. Yet few of us are willing to admit it. We confidently make snap judgments, but we are shockingly unaware of the impact our assumptions have on those around us. Bias follows filmmaker Robin Hauser as she explore how unconscious bias defines relationships, workplaces, our justice system, and technology. 'bias' contemplates the most pressing question: Can we de-bias our brains?
Dutt, K., Pfaff, D. L., Bernstein, A. F., Dillard, J. S. & C. J. Block. (2016). Gender differences in recommendation letters for postdoctoral fellowships in geoscience. Nature Geoscience 9, 805-808.
Studies gender differences in recommendation letters, finding that letters written for female applicants typically praised them as solid scientists doing good work ... but were less likely to set the applicant apart from the others. The findings support the idea that gender bias exists unconsciously...and suggest that 'women are potentially disadvantaged from the beginning of their careers.
FitzGerald, C., Martin, A., Berner, D., & Hurst, S. (2019). Interventions designed to reduce implicit prejudices and implicit stereotypes in real world contexts: A systematic review. BMC Psychology, 7.
Implicit biases are present in the general population and among professionals in various domains, where they can lead to discrimination. Many interventions are used, however, uncertainties remain as to their effectiveness. In a systematic review of the literature, thirty articles were identified as eligible. Some techniques, such as engaging with others’ perspective, appear unfruitful, at least in short term implicit bias reduction, while other techniques, such as exposure to counterstereotypical exemplars, are more promising.
Vitriol, J. A., & Moskowitz, G. B. (2021). Reducing defensive responding to implicit bias feedback: On the role of perceived moral threat and efficacy to change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 96.
A common assumption is that increasing awareness of bias can motivate control over prejudiced responding. However, learning that one's actions are biased is threatening, and often motivates a range of self-protective responses to buffer that threat. Data show that interventions which (a) decrease perceived moral blameworthiness for having bias and (b) increase the perceived ability to control bias, reduce defensive responding and increase awareness both in the short-term and approximately six months later.
Forscher, P. S., Axt, J. R., Herman, M., Lai, C. K., Ebersole, C. R., Devine, P. G., & Nosek, B. A. (2019). A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 117(3), 522–559.
Using a novel technique known as network meta-analysis, we synthesized evidence from 492 studies (87,418 participants) to investigate the effectiveness of procedures in changing implicit measures, which we define as response biases on implicit tasks. We also evaluated these procedures’ effects on explicit and behavioral measures. We found that implicit measures can be changed, but effects are often relatively weak (|ds| < .30). Most studies focused on producing short-term changes with brief, single-session manipulations. Procedures that associate sets of concepts, invoke goals or motivations, or tax mental resources changed implicit measures the most, whereas procedures that induced threat, affirmation, or specific moods/emotions changed implicit measures the least. Bias tests suggested that implicit effects could be inflated relative to their true population values. Procedures changed explicit measures less consistently and to a smaller degree than implicit measures and generally produced trivial changes in behavior. Finally, changes in implicit measures did not mediate changes in explicit measures or behavior. Our findings suggest that changes in implicit measures are possible, but those changes do not necessarily translate into changes in explicit measures or behavior.
Hall, W. J., Chapman, M. V., Lee, K. M., Merino, Y. M., Thomas, T. W., Payne, B. K., Eng, E., Day, S. H., & Coyne-Beasley, T. (2015). Implicit Racial/Ethnic Bias Among Health Care Professionals and Its Influence on Health Care Outcomes: A Systematic Review. American Journal of Public Health, 105(12), e60–e76.
In the United States, people of color face disparities in access to health care, the quality of care received, and health outcomes. Implicit attitudes and behaviors of health care providers have been identified as one of many factors that contribute to health disparities. We investigated the extent to which implicit racial/ ethnic bias exists among health care professionals and examined the relationships between health care professionals' implicit attitudes about racial/ethnic groups and health care outcomes. We included a total of 15 studies for review. These studies concluded that most health care providers appear to have implicit bias in
Milkman, K. L., Akinola, M., & Chugh, D. (2012). Temporal distance and discrimination: An audit study in academia. Psychological Science, 23(7), 710–717.
In our study, faculty members (sample of 6,548 professors) received e-mails from fictional prospective doctoral students seeking to schedule a meeting either that day or in 1 week; students’ names signaled their race (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Indian, or Chinese) and gender. When the requests were to meet in 1 week, Caucasian males were granted access to faculty members 26% more often than were women and minorities; also, compared with women and minorities, Caucasian males received more and faster responses. However, these patterns were essentially eliminated when prospective students requested a meeting that same day. Our identification of a temporal discrimination effect is consistent with the predictions of construal-level theory and implies that subtle contextual shifts can alter patterns of race- and gender-based discrimination.