Implicit Bias: An Accurate Predictor of Discrimination

Psychologists agree that most of our actions occur without conscious thoughts. Thus, our implicit biases often predict how we’ll behave more accurately than the values we profess.

Despite hundreds of years of slavery and ongoing discrimination against African Americans and Native Americans, studies show that white people frequently associate stereotypes of criminality with Black people, so many without realizing cross the street or clutch their purse tighter when approached by or joined in an elevator by a Black person.

Using the Harvard Implicit Association Test at implicit.harvard.edu you can measure the strength of your associations between various groups and positive and negative descriptors.  The test accurately predicts discrimination in teachers’ disciplining of students, administrators hiring and promoting individuals, judges making harsher judicial decisions in criminal cases, and doctors failing to prescribe necessary medical treatment.

Those with higher implicit bias levels against Black people are more likely to categorize non-weapons as weapons (such as a phone for a gun, or a comb for a knife), and police are more likely to shoot an unarmed Black person.  Implicit bias is often a matter of life and death.

Thankfully, it is possible to overcome our biases.

Mass media has a major role to play by ceasing to perpetuate stereotypes against Black and Brown people, and individuals should search out programs that include people of color in counter-stereotypical ways. We also need to educate ourselves and younger generations on the history and reasons which have led to the current vast economic disparities

Members of institutions can identify risk areas where implicit biases may affect our judgments and use counter strategies. For example, employers can remove applicants’ names and other social identifiers on resumes.

One strategy that has proven successful to counteract bias is taking the time to pause or create friction to reflect on the evidence of our assumptions.  And we can ask ourselves of almost every decision we make:  What are the racial, cultural, and class implications of this decision?

And of the most powerful antidotes to the disease of prejudice involves leaving our comfort zone and seeking out genuine friendships with people from different backgrounds.  Strong relationships destroy ignorance faster than anything else. We quickly learn that our prejudices do not conform to reality, and change can take place.

Recognition that there is only one humankind removes any basis for belief in racial or cultural superiority and allows us to see every person as an individual with unique talents and capacities.

It’s not our fault we have implicit biases, but it is our responsibility to strive to overcome our prejudices and to work as individuals and on institutions for inclusion, justice, unity, and the well-being of our human family, in all its beautiful diversity.