The Perception Of Unconscious Bias

Implicit bias plays a significant role in today’s society, whether the members realize it or not. The online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says,” ‘Implicit bias’ is a term of art referring to a relatively unconscious and relatively automatic features of prejudiced judgement and social behavior” (Brownstein 2015). Implicit biases are often based on stereotypes. Stereotypes, as defined by OpenStax, are “oversimplified ideas about groups of people” (OpenStax College 2015:248). Implicit biases can be problematic for many reasons. One way implicit biases are troublesome is due to the fact that it is unconscious, so it is usually out of a person’s control. People are often unaware of their own and how they use it. A very common way implicit biases are seen in society is through discrimination. Discrimination is defined as “prejudiced action against a group of people” (OpenStax College 2015:248). If a man and a woman are considered as potentials for being hired, the employer may have an implicit bias either towards or against men or women influencing them to hire one over the other based on their gender. This exemplifies a modern concern of gender discrimination as well. Implicit biases can come in many forms from gender, race, weight, sexuality, and many more. These factors can influence an individual’s treatment of others if they have significant bias. In society, these implicit biases can negatively influence minority and other groups and lead to inequality.

As according to Linda S. Dix, it is not an easy matter to assess the magnitude of gender discrimination and how that affects the careers of scientists, both men and women, positively and negatively. Discrimination is often subtle and thus difficult to identify or locate. Due to its subtleness, it makes it difficult to measure since it can be entwined with other forms of particularism like age. As a result researchers have come to rely on indirect rather than direct measures of discrimination which was also propounded by Harriet Zuckerman. Most researchers have come to agree that differences in career attainments between men and women occur as an outcome of gender discrimination.

The interesting thing about bias is how and why it develops. Often it is rooted in fear and even denial. People are easily intimidated by things that are different, and they are motivated by acceptance. So, sometimes we pretend to be something we are not in order to fit in. The irony in this is that bias may develop against things that are actually a part of our own makeup. If we are honest, it becomes evident that

Prejudice is an opinion in which is not based on any reasoning, and may cause harm. Prejudice can be seen just about anywhere, and it affects our daily lives. There are many different ways a person can show prejudice beliefs, but why do they believe things they have never experience? Some may say it’s something personal with one’s self that causes prejudice thoughts, or some may think it their surroundings contribute as a motive.

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

On the gender – career test I received a strong preference towards associating men with careers. This caused me to realize I have hidden biases I am unaware of. Blindspot mentions that everyone has biases and orderly living depends on them(Banaji, 80), so before taking the exam I was aware biases played a role in my mind. Although, I wouldn’t have believed one of my hidden biases would be that males are more suit for careers and women should stay at home and care for children. Ever since I was a young child, my parents have instilled into me the passion to become successful, regardless of my gender. Now, as a

own conscious awareness of it. An example of this prejudice that anyone can encounter in their

It is said that conservatives have a greater negative bias than liberals. Negativity bias is a cognitive bias that puts more attention and importance on negative experiences and information. A bias is defined as a tendency to perceive things in a distorted manner that alters our way of thinking. Negativity bias makes negative information impact behavior and perception more than positive information. An example of this would be if you have negativity bias and meet a new person with many positive traits, but one bad trait, you will remember the bad trait way more than the positive traits. There have been many studies on negativity bias, one of which, International Affective Picture System shows the subject friendly, neutral, and threatening images. The subjects were able to recall easier and more in detail the the threatening images than the friendly or neutral ones. The study showed that conservatives tend to focus their gaze on the negative pictures, while liberals focused on the happier images. Another study called the Dot- Probe Test showed that between two pictures with opposing connotations, conservatives proved to be faster at spotting the dot when it was on the side of a negative image.

Implicit biases refer to a series of terms related with unconscious prejudiced judgment and attitude. Previous studies showed people’s behaviours may be influenced by implicit biases (Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham & Handelsman, 2012), as well as the way people perceive and evaluate others (Michael, 2016). In long history, a number of evidences showed that women were in a disadvantage situation in science. For example, women were often undervalued like having poor scientific ability, and hardly got a scientific job compared to male peers (Steinpreis, Anders and Ritzke, 1999). Even though nowadays there was an obvious decreasing tendency on gender bias resulted of the education of gender difference and equality (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012), women were still disadvantaged in academic recruitment and promotion. For instance, there was not obvious change on the percentage of women workers, although the number of whole workers significantly increased (Nielsen, 2016). Thus, investigating the question whether there is a difference in evaluation with a clear gender shown may be helpful to future academic evaluation and gender equality.

The Industry of Science needs a wake-up call over sexual equality. Women getting passed up for jobs, promotions and even tenure due to nothing more than the fact they were born female at birth. How fair is that? Their education and credentials are above and beyond what is required. “I have learned that when it comes to prejudice it doesn’t seem to matter so much what the facts are- many men have already decided that women are innately less good at this or that, and data saying otherwise won’t always get them to change their minds,’ says the professor of Neurobiology, Developmental Biology, and

A woman’s self-esteem can be destroyed simply by her being discriminated and compared in the work place. As the American Civil Liberties Union states that sex discrimination and harassment can lead to the inhibiting of women’s advancement in the workforce (“Women 's Rights in the Workplace.”). Many women have heard, sometime throughout their life, that they are not as smart as men, or not as strong as men. Some women even believe this is true. An example would be female students and math. Women can do math just as well as men, but often there is a bias that a woman should not try for traditionally male dominated jobs like engineers because they cannot do the math required. Other traditionally male jobs, such as being a physician, are no longer male dominated with fifty percent or more of new medical school applicants being female (“The Changing Gender Composition of U.S. Medical School Applicants and Matriculants.” 1). The salary inequality that has been proven statistically, either potentially encourages a woman to do better or it can break her down, causing her to be less happy. An example of this was provided by Schieder and Gould, they found that women who are a part of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) career paths are more likely to quit their jobs and not return to that career path (51%) (Schieder and Elise 4). Furthermore, they are also highly prone (63%) to experience sexual harassment at

Behind the workplace, gender bias is clearly apparent. When looking at applicants for a job, men are usually hired over the women because men maintain more physical abilities than women. Thus, women are hardly ever chosen for a job due to the stereotypical views of women possessing physical incapabilities. “A workplace may use equipment designed with the heights and weights of men in mind, since the work traditionally has been “men’s work” (Bartlett 2). Because women are stereotypically viewed as weak individuals who don’t exhibit the capability of having a job, it is believed that a woman's place is in the home. Moreover, women are seen as individuals that need to be protected by men. Thus, women aren’t usually hired for laborious work and remain at home. To this, men are stereotypically the

One of the most debated topics in modern society today is equality. Most everyone agrees that all people are equal, however, most everyone is also implicitly biased about genders whenever it comes to careers. For example, imagine for a moment a random piano teacher. What gender did you automatically think of them as? You more than likely initially imaged a female piano teacher. Now, imagine a random surgeon/ doctor. What gender did you automatically see them as? You probably imaged them as a male. If so, you are experiencing implicit gender bias. Unfortunately, you are not alone in this; society itself implicitly assigns males to scientific careers and women to liberal arts. Implicit bias are the completely unconscious stereotypes and attitudes we have towards society that affects our decisions and understanding of things. The key word in that definition is unconscious. Most people do not even realize they hold this bias; you might not have even realized you were experiencing this bias until reading this paragraph. This ignorance is one of the main reasons this bias is still occurring on a daily basis to most of humanity, and it is the main reason there is such a gender divide in careers today. It is hypothesized that helping people identify their implicit bias (specifically gender career bias) and providing them with basic education and strategies on the topic itself will reduce their gender career bias.

It is vital that it be understood that in this context bias is any tendency to judge something either more or less favorably based on preexisting notions rather than on the data presented. It is equally important to understand that the human mind looks for patterns, the term for this phenomenon is pareidolia, in which people see hidden faces in clouds or even hear nonexistent messages in songs. It is because the mind seeks to recognize patterns, even where none exist. Similarly, people who

Most people consider themselves as rational, reasoning individuals who make decisions after considering the facts at hand. Research suggests that this is often not the case, with implicit bias at work shaping one’s responses. Researchers at Cornell University have defined implicit bias as “unconscious, unintentional bias” (Royer, Hido & Slotnick, 2017). Predictors of implicit bias include socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, childhood experience, and cultural experience (Cooley, Payne & Phillips, 2013). Unlike explicit bias which reflects attitudes or beliefs that one endorses on a conscious level, implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner resulting from subtle cognitive processes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control (Gyan, n.d.). Of these, implicit gender bias affects the health and social wellbeing of women, as well as disadvantages women economically and in the workplace. As such implicit gender bias is endemic within the scientific, technological, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and this bias can disadvantage women pursing these careers (Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham & Handelsman, 2012). The importance of further study of mitigating interventions of this implicit gender bias is clear. Our hypothesis is that implicit gender bias related to women in STEM fields will