Implicit Bias: How do You Fight What You Don’t Know is There?

One of the most consistently read articles on this site was published two years ago. It is our piece on Ingroup Vs. Outgroup. The popularity of this work is understandable. Its publication came two years after a divisive U.S. election and seemingly ever-increasing political stratifications and international uncertainty. Tensions are still high. Many countries find themselves confronting the legacy of colonialism and race. This stems prominently from protests across the United States focused on policing. You may have heard calls for implicit bias training for police officers. But what exactly is implicit bias, what is implicit bias training, and can you be debiased?

What is Implicit Bias?

For our work on Ingroup Vs. Outgroup we spoke of Social Categorization. This is the process of classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics: nationality, age, occupation, race, etc. This is how we form Ingroups and Outgroups. Implicit Bias is an aspect of categorization but it is not the same thing. 

Based on an emerging body of cognitive and neural research implicit bias consists of perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes which operate without conscious intention. As one of the ways the brain organizes information, this has real-world implications. Unfortunately, because it is unconscious individuals are unaware and therefore unable to address it. It is such a pervasive bias that research has shown that we can also hold implicit biases against our own ingroup. So if we take the example of race in the United States “white Americans generally have implicit biases against other races, but racial minorities can hold implicit biases against themselves, too”.

What Are The Effects of Implicit Bias?

“And my parents gave me that name, a ‘neutral name’ so that nobody would ever look at my name on a job application or resume and deny me an opportunity because of my race. Which is a beautiful and really heartbreaking way of trying to make a world for a person…and it’s worked very well…I’ve had a lot of job interviews with racists.”

R. Eric Thomas A Sign, A Satire, And a Scandal

The real-world implications of implicit bias are extensive. Research repeatedly indicates that discrimination is ubiquitous across many of our institutions and prevalent in policing. Even working within the limited data of 2017 studies found disproportionate use of lethal force in policing was associated with regional racial biases of residents. And there have been numerous studies indicating race significantly increases the likelihood of an officer misperceiving a harmless object as a weapon.

This has rightfully been dominating the conversation of implicit bias as it is literally a life or death situation. But it should be acknowledged just how pervasive implicit bias is. Implicit bias has been found in the courtroom, the classroom, and the job market.  It is present in health care which also has life or death consequences. It contributes to black mothers being 60 percent more likely than white mothers to have preterm births and twice as likely to have a baby with a low birth rate. 

As it exists in so many of the important institutions we rely on and contributes so significantly to structural inequity, a deeper understanding of implicit bias is necessary.

Implicit Bias Training

Understanding Implicit Bias is one part of mitigating its effects. You can contribute to Implicit Bias research by registering with project implicit. 

Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition – thoughts, and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a ‘virtual laboratory’ for collecting data on the Internet.

Exercises are not time-consuming or difficult and you will be helping researchers, and maybe yourself, identify biases. 

But awareness is only a first step. Unfortunately, the results of implicit bias training of police officers are largely inconclusive. Trainers often have to overcome reticence from officers to admit to bias. Moreover, there is a lack of standards for implicit bias training which means nobody really knows how effective the training is. Researcher Josh Correll states that while a program may appear to be identifying bias “when someone jumps out from behind the bushes and pulls something from his waistband, that’s not the way the brain is working.”

Social psychologist Anthony Greenwald has been studying implicit bias for a quarter century. Greenwald is skeptical of “most of what’s offered under the label of implicit bias training”. But in a recent interview with Discover Magazine, he does offer some known mitigators of the negative effects of implicit bias.

Counter-Stereotypic Examples

One somewhat successful option is exposure to counter-stereotypic examples. For example, seeing scientists, writers, professors, etc., who are African American runs counter to dominant African American stereotypes. The effects of counter-stereotypic examples appear to be temporary though. This is not surprising given the pervasiveness of negative stereotypes, and it speaks to a need for better overall representation.

Data Collection

Greenwald stresses collecting data to document disparities occurring as a result of bias. This can be applied in many settings (not just police). Once you know where the problem is, it’s up to administrators to figure out ways to understand why and how this is happening.

Discretion Elimination

Once you have the data it is time for discretion elimination. This can be applied when people are making decisions that involve subjective judgment about a person.

Greenwald relates a well-known example of discretion elimination in the audition process of orchestras in the United States. In the 1970s auditions became anonymous with musicians auditioning behind a screen. The result? The share of women hired as instrumentalists in major symphony orchestras rose from around 10 to 20 percent before 1970 to about 40 percent.

Mindfulness Meditation

In addition to Greenwald’s recommendations psychologists Adam Lueke and Bryan Gibson report in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science that a 10-minute introduction to mindfulness meditation led to “a decrease in implicit age and race bias.”

First Step To Addressing Bias

Much of the resistance from police officers regarding bias training was in admitting that they had an implicit bias. They are supposed to be impartial arbiters of justice and bias is in opposition to this.

During the research for Ingroup Vs. Outgroup it became apparent that white parents (liberal white parents included) are not speaking to their children about race. This unwillingness to talk about race at all would likely make it difficult for these children to understand or admit to implicit race bias later on.

One of the biggest hurdles in addressing Bias and especially Implicit Race Bias is a reluctance to speak about or admit to it. Because racism is so negative people do not want to be guilty of perpetuating it. 

But these biases are the brain’s evolutionary need to categorize responding to strong social narratives. Being aware that they exist in all of us is a crucial part of addressing systemic inequities. 

There is an ethical responsibility from those not adversely affected by inequities to teach younger generations about bias and talk about race so that we might all work to dismantle negative societal outcomes. 

Source List (links in article)

1. “Implicit bias means we’re all probably at least a little bit racist”, Vox,  Jenée Desmond-Harris
2. “Implicit Bias and Policing”, Katherine B. Spencer,  Amanda K. Charbonneau,  Jack Glaser
3. “Disproportionate Use of Lethal Force in Policing Is Associated With Regional Racial Biases of Residents”, Eric Hehman, Jessica K. Flake, Jimmy Calanchini
4. “Prejudice and Perception: The Role of Automatic and Controlled Processes in Misperceiving a Weapon”, B. Keith Payne
5. “Implicit Bias in The Courtroom”, Kang, Bennett, Carbado, Casey, Dasgupta, Faigman, Godsil, Greenwald, Levinson, and Mnookin
6. “Discrimination against students with foreign backgrounds: evidence from grading in Swedish public high schools”, Bjorn Tyrefors Hinnerich, Erik Höglin &Magnus Johannesson
7. “A meta-analysis of gender stereotypes and bias in experimental simulations of employment decision making”, Koch, A. J., D’Mello, S. D., & Sackett, P. R.
8. “County-level Racial Prejudice and the Black-White Gap in Infant Health Outcomes”, Jacob Orchard, JosephPrice
9. Can Cops Unlearn Their Unconscious Biases?, The Atlantic, Tom James
10. Curbing Implicit Bias: What Works and What Doesn’t, Discover Magazine,  Betsy Mason
11. Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Implicit Age and Race Bias, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Adam Lueke, Bryan Gibson
12. Most White Parents Don’t Talk About Racism With Their Kids, The Conversation, David Chae, Leoandra Onnie Rogers, Tiffany Yip

Other Sources for Further Study

1. “How to Think about ‘Implicit Bias’”, Scientific American, Keith Payne, Laura Niemi, John M. Doris
2. “Are Humans Hard-wired for Racial Prejudice?”, Los Angeles Times, Robert Sapolsky

You can join Project Implicit Here

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