Racial Cognition And The Ethics Of Implicit Bias

“Self awareness is a state of being where you deeply understand your thoughts, emotions and behaviours and how they affect people and the world around them. When people are self aware they move beyond simply existing or reacting to their environment to deliberately living a fulfilling and meaningful life. People get to know the real of them and do things that reflect who they are deep inside” (Source: internet).

In today’s society, announcing one’s aversion towards people different from them is the fastest way receive ridicule. In general, society has progressed to a point where being xenophobic, racist, and sexist is socially unacceptable. Despite this progress, society still suffers from the effects of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Why is that? The answer has to do with the fact that while explicit expressions of these behaviors are seen as unacceptable, implicit associations still permeate our society. These associations lead to implicit bias. Implicit bias is readily becoming the most pervasive form of bias in our society. It contributes to both micro and macro-level inequalities, and raising awareness of implicit bias is crucial in order to suppress its effects on society. This paper will start with a discussion of what implicit bias is. This will be followed by a discussion of the effects of implicit bias. It will conclude with a discussion of how implicit bias can be combatted.

discusses the results of a Implicit Association Test which measures a persons automatic association between mental representation of objects in the memory. Nearly 88 percent of the white race who took the Implicit Association Test show inherent racial bias. They have found when white people carry a implicit racial bias that they subconsciously prefer white people over black people in areas such as employment and academic. People don't even realize that they have a subconscious biases against a certain race. Which can affect how they interact with them. America still has a problem with race, The Civil War ended many years ago but the war between races still exist . Once we acknowledge the truth behind inherent racial bias we can move towards

People tend to think that they don’t have any biases against minority groups. However, unbeknownst to them, research has shown that many people actually do harbor negative biases, in the form of automatic associations. In a study performed by B. Keith Payne, at the University of North Carolina, he tested to see whether participants have an unintended racial bias towards African-Americans. To test this, he used an Implicit Association Test (IAT). This test uses a matching method to find any hidden biases in the test taker. He found that participants indeed showed racial bias towards African-Americans, even though it was completely unintended (Payne). Last week, we wanted to see whether we have a bias for

Implicit bias is an individual’s internal beliefs regarding others and influences how people conduct themselves in various settings and situations and may result in injustices such as stereotyping or racial profiling. The National Center for States Courts defines implicit bias as “judgement or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes.” This behavior is difficult to identify, because people typically respond and behave in ways that seem appropriate and protect their own interests. Furthermore, these beliefs are more often subconscious than overt. Some groups are working to deter implicit bias and promote diversity.

Self-Awareness: This is a skill which is related to you. It is the ability to understand your emotions in various situations (Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. 2009 Pg. 24). It is important to understand yourself first then only you will able to understand others.

Response to “Passing”, “Whitening the Resume” and “Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions”

The Implicit Association Test or IAT is a valuable tool that those in the criminal justice system use; often times during the hiring process candidates will be required to complete the IAT so that hiring officials can see if they have any unconscious bias. The IAT is still relatively new in terms of psychological research only being created in the 1990’s by psychologist Anthony Greenwald (Kaufman, 2011). Individuals who take the race portion of the test are shown pictures of Caucasian and African-American males or females, then are given positive or negative words that they associate with each race as fast as possible. After taking the test it measures the unconscious bias that everyone has deep down (Kaufman, 2011).

Daniel Goleman provides examples of individuals experiencing self-awareness at both work and in one’s life (Goleman, 2013). Being conscious of one’s inner world, beliefs, thoughts, and concepts are what comprise self-awareness. In one’s daily life there are situations, struggles, and trials which can impact sound judgement and resolution. Self-awareness helps the individual make healthy decisions and knowing when to ask for help to cope with an overwhelming issue. Also learning to grow through a limiting perspective to compromise with others and seek alternatives (Levine, 2013). Others may disagree with ones beliefs, decisions, and lifestyle, yet the individual can recognize feelings about those in disagreement with them and avoid unnecessary conflict. While in the work

No matter who you are or what part of the world you are from implicit bias are a constant issue in society. These tendencies typically stem from structural injustice, implicit bias, and personal discretion. Structural injustice is when a category of people are associated with an insufficient status when comparing to other groups of people engaging in the same actions. Implicit bias are stances and stereotypes that affect our comprehension, actions and decisions held by our unconscious manner. These bias are involuntarily and are done without individuals awareness or intentional control. Everyone is exposed to these biases at a young age through the media, parents, and teachers. Each individual holds possession of implicit bias whether they

“You are a racist!” is a phrase that produces anxiety and triggers defensive mindsets, especially in work environments. Are you racist? Are you sexist? Are you bias? The answers to these questions might not be as stress-free to answer as you believe. Is it possible to be biased without the intent to be biased? Yes. There are two different types of biases; explicit bias and implicit bias. Explicit bias is when you consciously believe that certain races, genders, or religions are inferior. Implicit bias is when you think that you are unbiased but actually perform unconscious bias actions. Recognizing implicit bias is no easy undertaking which is why there have been theoretical attempts to avert implicit bias before it materializes. In the modern business world, unintentional prejudiced actions happen every day. In his paper “Context and the Ethics of Implicit Bias,” Michael Brownstein attempts to find a solution to these critical issues. In this essay, I will attempt to explain the theories behind the three ‘ethics of implicit bias’ and what problems arise in each situation according to Brownstein. I will then describe the advanced contextualist approach of Brownstein’s and why I consider his strategy to be the most effective in business settings through my own personal experiences.

How would you react if someone told you that you were biased? Everyone has their own personal way of reacting. Because of this, it’s better to ask a different question: how should we, as people, react? Before coming to an answer, the question must be explained, as bias has many ways of being interpreted. Some forms are okay, such as mere preferences that don’t affect much; for example, people who like chocolate have a bias when choosing chocolate versus vanilla cake.

What is one vital concept that drives the existence of humans in society? Every moment of every day humans experience a phenomenon that has grasped the interest of psychologists and philosophers alike. This perplexing notion is the manifestation of emotions. There are hundreds of emotions that one can experience, but one in particular has caused a debate. The emotion of disgust has induced a plethora of theories attempting to explain the following normative question: Should disgust influence one’s considered moral judgments? On one side, the advocates state that disgust influences a person’s moral judgments. On the other hand, the skeptics doubt the power that disgust has on a one’s considered moral judgments. A philosopher named Daniel Kelly reflects on this particular discourse in his novel “Yuck: The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust” and defends the idea that disgust does not impact a person’s considered moral judgments. In order to support this position, Kelly expresses his opposition to multiple theories, such as the Deep Wisdom Theory and Terror Management Theory, and utilizes the Entanglement Thesis and the Co-Opt Thesis to substantiate his claim.

Intuition has rarely been given the credit it deserves, even when numerous experiments over the past decades has shown it to be a complex and detailed subconscious process, rather than the pseudo-science many still believe it to be. Despite the success of intuition as a decision maker, the ideology that we should trust logic first and hunches second often wins out. While intuition has been known to lead to mistakes, known as Warren-Harding Errors, it’s often more reliable than logical, thought out problem solving. Ignorance as to the true nature of intuition has led to a societal ideology that values the conscious over the subconscious, and regards intuition as a lesser emotion that isn’t to be trusted. However, there is, in fact, science to support the reliability of intuition. Gut feelings are a result of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, located directly behind the nose, which sorts and prioritizes information, and runs all relevant information through the subconscious, which uses an analyzation of past events and calculates the best course of action. This process manifests as intuition.

It can be concluded that ways of knowing such as reason and emotion affect instinctive judgements to a large extent. However these ways of knowing will be drawn together with intuition subconsciously which then undermines their contribution in making instinctive judgements. In relation to the title that questions the extent of ways of knowing as a check in instinctive judgement, based on the analysis, ways of knowing does work as a check in instinctive judgement to a large extent due to fact that there’s a large effect caused by the absence of a way of knowing in making moral instinctive judgement. Nonetheless, ways of knowing such as reason and emotion have limitations when it comes to making instinctive judgements instantly, as these ways of knowing need consideration and clear