What Is Unconscious Bias, and How Do You Recognize It?
Imagine being taught by an avowed antiracist professor who unintentionally calls on white students first and gives students of color lower grades. This behavior represents an example of unconscious bias, also called implicit bias. It can create a noninclusive learning environment that undermines the professor’s own mission to create an equitable classroom for all students.
Unconscious includes attitudes and preconceptions, often stereotypical, that people don’t know they have. These biases can cause people to treat individuals from underrepresented groups unfairly or exclude them from opportunities. Unconscious bias affects decisions in every industry, from education and business to technology and healthcare.
Addressing how to address and prevent these preconceived biases starts with understanding what unconscious bias is, how to recognize it, and why it can be so difficult to unlearn. Ultimately, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts must address unconscious bias to make our world fair and accessible to all.
The Difference Between Implicit and Explicit Bias
The human brain quickly categorizes stimuli. Being able to decide in an instant whether an unknown entity is dangerous or friendly helped prehistoric humans navigate a dangerous world. Evolutionary biologists recognize this trait as one that once promoted survival but today often leads people to unfairly prejudge, stereotype, and discriminate.
Implicit bias results from subtle cues that lead us to form snap judgments about people based on certain aspects of their identity, such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, and so on. These cues are often informed by stereotypes perpetuated in the media we consume, the people we interact with, and even the words we hear others use.
People often fail to realize their judgments and actions result from bias. Many biases are often automatic and subconscious—meaning they can influence our behavior even when we are determined to be fair, antiracist, antisexist, and nonhomophobic. Unconscious bias is implicit rather than explicit—individuals are not always aware of their unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that can influence their behavior.
When we become aware of our own implicit biases, we can change the way we think and act. This, in turn, can begin to break down the systems of oppression in our society.
Types of Unconscious Bias
Common types of unconscious bias include:
- Gender bias: Judging people based on their gender
- Racial bias: Judging people based on their race
- Age bias: Judging people based on their age
- Beauty bias: Judging people you find attractive people as more competent than people you find unattractive
- Affinity bias: Judging people who are like us as more trustworthy and worth cooperating with than people who are unlike us
- Attribution bias: Judging other people’s behavior as due to their personal characteristics rather than to their situation
Unconscious Bias Examples
Unconscious bias is a natural phenomenon that occurs when our brain makes split-second judgments about people or situations based on our prior experiences, beliefs, and assumptions. While these biases are often subconscious, they can lead to discriminatory behaviors and decisions that can negatively impact certain individuals, communities, and organizations.
Unconscious biases can create big problems in the workplace. They can lead to people being treated differently because of their race, gender, age, or other factors. This can spawn a hostile work environment and make it difficult for people to do their jobs.
Analyzing an unconscious bias example, such as gender bias, can be helpful. An employer who has an unconscious bias against women may be less likely to hire or promote employees who are women. This can lead to a workforce that is not representative of the population, which can create an uncomfortable or even hostile work environment for underrepresented groups.
Additionally, unconscious bias can impact job performance evaluations. For example, studies have shown that women and minorities are more likely to be evaluated harshly compared to their white male counterparts. This can lead to disparities in pay and opportunities for advancement.
Recognizing Unconscious Bias
Implicit bias can result in discriminatory behaviors toward others. Although it is often unconscious, it can have a significant impact on how we interact with others and make decisions.
Once we are aware of our own biases, we can take steps to combat them. A good way to begin is to make a conscious effort to consider a wider range of perspectives. One method of recognizing unconscious bias is to become aware of the common types of bias and to look out for them in our own thinking and behavior.
In another unconscious bias example, people with an unconscious gender bias may be more likely to unintentionally attribute certain qualities to people with a specific gender, such as assuming that men in a group would make better leaders than women or nonbinary individuals. Gender bias can also manifest as preferential treatment, such as when organizations disproportionately hire and promote more men than women and nonbinary people.
Recognizing unconscious bias starts by looking for evidence of potential bias in our own actions and the collective actions of our teams and groups. Take a university planning committee, for example: Does the team distribute work fairly and equitably across people of all genders? Does the team hire and promote women and nonbinary people into leadership roles?
Another way to recognize our unconscious biases is to take quizzes that measure different kinds of bias. Implicit bias tests, such as the Implicit Association Test by Project Implicit can reveal whether the test taker has unconscious biases based on:
- Age: Revealing an unconscious preference for young faces over older faces
- Race: Revealing an unconscious preference for faces of white individuals over the faces of people of color
- Sexuality: Revealing an unconscious bias for words and symbols that represent straight people relative to gay people
- Disability: Revealing an unconscious bias for recognizing physically abled people over physically disabled people
- Skin tone: Revealing an unconscious preference for light-skinned faces relative to dark-skinned faces
- Weight: Revealing an unconscious bias against people who are overweight compared to people who are not
How to Address Unconscious Bias
Almost everyone has unconscious biases, but when these biases start to impair our decision making, they can lead to all sorts of problems, from missed opportunities to discriminatory practices. It’s important to become aware of our biases and take steps to address them.
1. Gain Awareness of One’s Own Biases
The first step in addressing our unconscious biases is to become aware of the personal biases that influence how we think and act. When we are aware of what our unconscious biases are, we can take steps to mitigate their effects.
However, becoming aware of one’s own biases is only the first step—people need to do more to combat unconscious bias. According to a report in Harvard Business Review, researchers reviewed multiple meta-analyses of unconscious bias training programs as of 2021. They found that the majority of programs had no effects or adverse effects on reducing bias in the workplace. This suggests that telling people they have unconscious biases is not enough to stop these biases from affecting their behavior.
2. Become an Ally
All of us should strive to become allies for those who are hurt by unconscious bias. Everyone—leaders, teachers, workers, and teammates—should speak out when they notice someone being treated unfairly and work to create an inclusive environment.
While bias is normal, it is not unavoidable. Allies can do the following:
- Advocate for audits. Audits can determine whether biases are affecting the outcomes of an organization.
- Focus on the potential for change in an organization. People who believe that unconscious biases cannot be overcome have little reason to change their behaviors. Allies can play an important role in promoting an environment that continuously strives for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Offer multiple examples of unconscious bias. Some examples focus on extreme and overt forms of bias, but bias can take many forms. By reminding organizations of this—including when leaders subtly exclude and downplay the contributions of people from marginalized groups—allies can teach other people how to spot biased behavior.
3. Encourage Empathy
Research shows that nurturing empathy can improve the effectiveness of unconscious bias training programs, according to Harvard Business Review.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that encouraging people to consider a situation from another person’s perspective can help to reduce the effects of unconscious biases. Here’s how it works: Ask someone to imagine what it’s like to be a person who experiences unfair treatment. They can visualize others questioning their ability or skills because of the way they look or the social groups they belong to.
By slowing down and encouraging others to vividly imagine the perspective of someone who may be affected by a workplace or university decision, leaders may be able to avoid bad decisions based on unconsciously biased worldviews.
4. Make Structural Changes to Minimize the Opportunities for Unconscious Bias
Leaders can reflect on when they may be most influenced by their implicit biases (e.g., evaluating employees’ performance), then make an action plan to mitigate these biases.
For example, the NIH reports that gender and racial bias are less prevalent in blind recruitment—even among hiring committees that profess to be inclusive and equitable.
To understand how unconscious bias operates in organizations, leaders may need to track employee interactions carefully, then analyze the data to find opportunities to improve. Organizations may uncover unconscious bias in:
- Performance evaluations
- Hiring decisions
- Promotions
- Opportunities for advancement or recognition
- Leadership role assignments
- Meeting invitations
- Perceptions of contributions to team projects
Take the Next Step to Expand Your DEI Knowledge and Skill Set
By taking the time to understand what unconscious bias is and become aware of our own biases, we can learn to control them and make fair and equitable decisions in our personal and professional lives.
Focusing on DEI is vital to ensuring a productive workplace and society. Understanding the fundamentals of DEI in relation to one’s own personal background and experiences takes self-reflection and ongoing study. Learn more about the DEI certificate program from the Center for Continuing & Professional Education at Suffolk University.
The program offers participants engaging materials that can help them explore concepts such as unconscious bias, cultural intelligence, and privilege. Take the next step to discover how you can incorporate DEI knowledge and concepts into the workplace.
Recommended Readings:
The Value of Microcredentials
The Impact of Lifelong Learning on Your Health
Why Lawyers Need a 21st Century Legal Education
Sources:
Asana, “19 Unconscious Biases to Overcome and Help Promote Inclusivity”
Diversity Resources, Types of Unconscious Bias
Harvard Business Review, “Unconscious Bias Training That Works”
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Unconscious Bias
National Initiative for Building Community Trust & Justice, “Implicit Bias”
National Institutes of Health, Implicit Bias
National Partnership for Women & Families, “Quantifying America’s Gender Wage Gap by Race/Ethnicity”
Project Implicit
SHRM, “Gender Pay Gap Improvement Slowed during the Pandemic”