Unconscious Bias Research

Implicit bias is bias in one’s judgment or behavior that results from one’s unconscious associations. In order to thoroughly discuss implicit bias, implicit associations must first be examined. Implicit associations refer to one’s unconscious associations between a group and how one feels about said group. For example, a person may subconsciously associate straight people as “normal” and homosexuals as “wrong”. They may have this unconscious association even if they do not express this opinion

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.

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.

In essence, explicit biases are based on general knowledge and ‘common sense’ that an individual can identify and expound on. Naturally, having an explanation does not make these judgments, or their premises, accurate. An example of an explicit bias would be assigning gender roles to different tasks. For instance, at the extreme, women were not seen fit to join the labor force in the developed countries until well into the 19th century; the explanation for this was that women were supposed to stay home and take care of the household, and were less able than men to do most of other types of work. However, no scientific evidence exists to date that identifies any significant differences between genders on their performance on work-related tasks (for more information on the history of gender roles in the working environment in the United States, see e.g. Kessler-Harris,

One hundred and sixty-six exonerations took place in 2016, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, setting a new record (“Exonerations 2016” 3). Indeed, misconvictions are now seen as part of the normal judicial process(“Exonerations 2016” 17). However, why are there so many mistakes in convicting individuals? One of the largest causes may be biases within the courts. Implicit bias in the American judicial system may seriously impact the underprivileged in receiving impartial verdicts in the legal system and access to quality lawyers.

Define implicit bias and give an example. The definition of implicit refers to something that is suggested or implied but never clearly said. An example of implicit is when the wife gives her husband a dirty look when she drops the husband's socks on the floor. Implicit Bias is also known as implicit social cognition; implicit bias refers to the attitudes of the people or the stereotypes that tend to affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unaware situation (Ohio State University, 2015). An example of implicit bias is when some doctors had become shown a patient history and where asked to decide about heart disease. The doctors were more likely to recommend cardiac cauterization an effective procedure to help the patients to

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = not happy to 10 = extremely happy), how happy are you at work?

One such scenario is the candidate hiring process where candidates with white sounding names received up to 50% more callbacks than candidates with black sounding names. The paper goes on to explain how the Implicit Association Test, IAT, demonstrates the subtle racial biases that many people have. Since individuals are often unaware of their implicit biases, the paper suggests that self-awareness is necessary to correct for the hidden factors in one’s own environment. One way they suggest fixing this problem is by simply being aware that one has these racial biases, also known as self-awareness. They provide an example where a person had read a psychology paper reporting that people in their profession are subject to certain kinds of racially biased behavior. The person was then inserted in the same scenario a few days later, and adjusted their behavior or actions to compensate for the racial bias they read about. When the person corrects his or her actions to incorporate the racial bias, he or she is more likely to give a more accurate assessment of the situation. This is because they are now self-aware of hidden biases that could negatively influence their

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

The environment in which one is born in has a way of embedded certain ideas into one’s head. Through socialization and personal experience, these ideas are formed and many people are never consciously aware of where these ideas stemmed from. Implicit bias is an unconscious thought process that many individuals are never aware of due to its intrinsic nature. The United States of America, which may be a country rich in diversity and culture, is also a place that is struggling to overcome a history of racism, oppression, and prejudice that has been prevalent since its founding. Over time, we have experienced less explicit racial discrimination and bias but implicit racial biases seems to be a vast concern worth exploring in the

4. How do you think attitude assessment does or should impact on an organisation’s performance evaluations, its recruitment and selection processes and on any training programs that might be implemented?

The choices for this question were marked on a scale of 1 – 4 and the options ranged as: not important, a little important, pretty important,

Unconscious bias is prejudices influencing individual thoughts and behaviours, influencing decision-making mainly owing to the judgements about other individuals and situations, without enough information. Unconscious bias affects the recruitment and selection in organisations as individuals or human elements have a significant contribution to the success of these processes (Beattie and Johnson 2012). The objective of recruitment and selection in any organisation is to attract the most potential and capable candidates therefore to select the most suitable applicants for appropriate jobs. Unconscious bias from stereotyping stems mainly from race and gender and has been studied in great detail from manufacturing, technology to the financial, and professional service industries (Collins 2007). However less research has been explored on unconscious bias affecting the recruitment and selection process within the retail fashion industry (Guryan and Charles 2013).

Bias and stereotyping can both be harmful for self-esteem and the developmental process in children. Bias is not only harmful for the target group since it lowers the self-esteem, but the group who feels superiority over the other is also harmed. The feeling of being superior disconnects a person from reality. Too much of self-esteem reduces the appreciation of others and may even slow down progress for the beholder. Stereotyping creates preconceived notions in the minds of children and adults due to which they fail to see others for what they actually are and rather judge them on the basis of information that is misguided and obsolete. Stereotyping results in developing strong perspectives of people who are different and causes prejudice.

Selecting the right employee to fill a position is one of the most challenging decision making processes a company has to make. The ultimate goal of employee selection is to hire the candidate who is most compatible not only with the organization but for the position that they are trying to fill. In order for the candidate to be successful in a particular position, their talents and personal goals must be taken into consideration and objectives need to be utilized in order to retain qualified individuals. The most common forms of selection methods are resumes and applications but testing, interviews, reference checks, honesty tests, medical exam and drug