The discussion around implicit bias has recently grown due to the contribution from Harvard University and their work with Project Implicit. Founded in 1998 by Tony Greenwald, Mahzarin Banaji, and Brian Nosek, Project Implicit has been the leader when it comes to studying the thoughts and feelings that are outside our conscious mind that contribute to hidden biases towards groups of people. Since it’s founding, and its later revamp in 2011, almost all research done on implicit bias use Project Implicit’s tests to sparse out reasons for these latent prejudices. Through the academic sphere there are not any objections to the presence of implicit bias but there are some variations as to the origin of implicit biases, what groups they effect and what techniques can be used in order to mitigate the effects this unconscious bias, if any.
Racial Bias
Healthcare:
1. Burgess, D. J., Beach, M. C., & Saha, S. (2017). Mindfulness practice: A promising approach to reducing the effects of clinician implicit bias on patients. Patient Education And Counseling, (2), 372. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2016.09.005
This source explains how health care providers can reduce their implicit racial bias to prevent care disparities. The authors have proposed that meditation training to increase the mindfulness of the health care providers by reducing the likelihood that implicit biases will be activated in the mind, increasing provider’s awareness of and ability to control responses to implicit biases once activated, increasing self-compassion and compassion towards patients, and reducing internal sources of cognitive load.
This source takes a look at the specifically racial biases that affect people who rely on health care professionals for continuous or temporary services. The realm of healthcare is a vital field for consumers of a service to be treated equally and with the utmost respect and effort that can be provided, making this an important aspect of this issue to address. Also taken into consideration are the possible reactions of the subjects who are told they have racial biases. Meditative training is a holistic approach that focuses on developing skills to recognize, acknowledge, and dismantle racial implicit biases and prevent resistance from those who present evidence of racism.
Legal:
2. Fridell, L., & Lim, H. (2016). Assessing the racial aspects of police force using the implicit- and counter-bias perspectives. Journal Of Criminal Justice, 4436-48. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2015.12.001
This source compares the implicit-bias perspective to the counter bias perspective to see if one has contributed to the longstanding issue of the police and their use of force against certain racial groups, sparking from the events that happened in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. The implicit-bias perspective claims that officer’s biases should produce a greater tendency to use force against black subjects, while the counter bias perspective predicts lesser force against blacks due to officers’ concerns about the consequences of using force against racial minorities. This view also predicts that that the use of greater force against racial/ethnic minorities will disappear in high crime neighborhoods.
The authors of this piece take a different approach to talking about implicit bias, especially concerning the subject matter of racial biases and a connection to the overuse of force and police brutality. Fridell and Lim do not discuss whether or not the police have any racial biases, but instead how those biases are acted upon in the line of duty. The conclusions of the presence of these implicit biases cannot be definitively proven, but the results suggest that implicit biases can and should be addressed during police training to prevent further incidents from happening based on unconscious biases and too quick decision making.
3. Morrison, M., DeVaul-Fetters, A., & Gawronski, B. (2016). Stacking the jury: Legal professionals’ peremptory challenges reflect jurors’ levels of implicit race bias. Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(8), 1129-1141. doi:10.1177/0146167216651853
Morrison, DeVaul, and Gawronski discuss the ways in which legal professionals use a simulated voir dire process to determine if any of the jurors have implicit racial biases. Lawyers assigned to the defense for a black defendant are more likely to exclude jurors with high levels of implicit race bias. In contrast, prosecutors of a black defendant did the opposite. However, there was no relation between lawyers’ peremptory challenges and jurors’ levels of explicit race bias.
This piece came at the topic of implicit biases from a very different standpoint that is ot usually seen. The authors showed how implicit biases can be manipulated to work in the favor of an individual. This practice does not validate the motivations of racism behind the implicit bias, but it does show a different side to the not so impartial jury of our peers that are created by lawyers trying to create a stacked jury in their favor, in order to win cases. Lawyers are well aware of the racial biases in play whenever a minority is involved in a case, and this piece shows how they exploit that knowledge for their benefit, and the benefit of their client.
4. Puddifoot, K. (2016). Accessibilism and the Challenge from Implicit Bias. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 97(3), 421-434.
Puddifoot explains how implicit biases are used to invalidate the theory of accessibilism and how this theory is relevant to the justifications behind decision-making. She starts off by defining accessibilism as the theory that only consciously accessible factors can be relevant to epistemic justification, or the justification behind a belief. For example, determining the guilt of an individual who happens to be a racial minority. The author points out that implicit biases are consciously inaccessible factors, but that they are still relevant to epistemic justification. Therefore, there are come consciously inaccessible factors that are relevant to epistemic justification, meaning the theory of accessibilism is incorrect.
This piece takes a different approach to discussing implicit biases, because they are not necessarily the main focus of this article. The author uses research done about implicit biases to disprove a theory that is extremely relevant to the world of unconscious decision-making and how much someone can be blamed for their implicit prejudices. It makes sense that someone should only be blamed for the things they can control, but it is also not a reasonable thing to let individuals make viable decisions based off of biased logic.
Education:
5. Staats, C. (2016). Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know. American Educator, 39(4), 29-33,.
This article gives a very basic overview of what implicit biases are and how they can affect the day-to-day lives of even the most open minded and egalitarian individuals, with specific emphasis on the role implicit biases can have in the relationship between a teacher and a student. After explaining how a students’ success can be put in jeopardy if their teacher has an unconscious bias against them, the author explains ways in which these issues can be addressed before they become an issue as a part of teacher training.
Rather than giving very theoretical suggestions as to how to fix the problem, this article gives concrete steps that teachers can and should put into practice. The author suggests taking the Implicit Association Test to look for any implicit biases. An approach that is not regularly seen is exposure to counter-stereotypical exemplars. Typically it is a widely accepted notion that it is important for children of all backgrounds to see themselves represented successfully in the media, as to not discourage them from reaching their full potential. This however, is also being used as a way to work against the forces of implicit biases.
6. Conaway, W., & Bethune, S. (2015). Implicit Bias and First Name Stereotypes: What Are the Implications for Online Instruction?. Online Learning, 19(3), 162-178.
An online classroom is perceived to be a safer place for those who are minorities, because of the lack of visual cues to spark any racism, even at a collegiate level. However, this article addresses the implicit bias that comes with stereotypically ethnic names and how those can lead to lack of attention or negative evaluations on the part of the teacher to that particular student. Even the teachers who described themselves as “warm and accepting of stereotypical names” were found to have implicit biases, reaching the conclusion that what instructors say they feel and what they really feel are distinctly different.
This article takes a different approach to implicit biases because it deals more with the stereotypes associated with certain races or ethnicities and less to do with visual and social cues that are acquired from a face-to-face interaction. This is not the first work to discuss racial implicit biases in education, and they agree with the prevalence in which unconscious judgments can effect the decisions of even the most welcoming instructors, but they do add in an extra element of the prejudices that the mind creates just off of a name and not seeing the actual person in front of them. It is a lot easier to judge and de-humanize someone, when you only interact with them through text on a computer screen.
Business:
7. van Nunspeet, F., Ellemers, N., & Derks, B. (2015). Reducing implicit bias: How moral motivation helps people refrain from making ‘automatic’ prejudiced associations. Translational Issues In Psychological Science, 1(4), 382-391. doi:10.1037/tps0000044
This article provided a very science heavy but thorough explanation of implicit biases, how they can be acknowledged, the underlying cognitive processes, the social implications, and how moral motivation can effect prejudice reduction. The authors address the assumption of the general public that prejudice is to some extent inevitable, because it relies on automatic and uncontrollable associations that affect the way we think about others. They acknowledge this theory, but explain through brain scans how neurocognitive processes can be changed to achieve a less biased if not completely bias free mind. Nunspeet, Ellemers, and Derks then apply this knowledge to the general public as well as the workplace to improve general social relations and productivity.
The approach this article takes to addressing implicit biases is very different from those that come from a more social-cultural background in terms of diagnosing and addressing implicit biases. They use the same method to test for the biases, but with that information, they use a more scientific method to study why the brain makes the associations it does and how they can be changed. In order to more permanently get rid of implicit biases, the authors say that an appeal to the moral motivation of changing implicit biases is the most effective way to reduce prejudice instead of trying to directly address the prejudices an individual has against specific minorities.
Gender Bias
8. Ramos, M. R., Barreto, M., Ellemers, N., Moya, M., Ferreira, L., and Calanchini, J. (2016) Exposure to sexism can decrease implicit gender stereotype bias. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., 46: 455–466. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2165.
The authors of this article discuss the ways in which being exposed to sexism effects the degree of implicit bias towards genders and whether this effect is different between men and women. When women are exposed to sexism, their likelihood to express implicit biases towards genders is significantly reduced. However, the exposure of men to sexism does not affect their implicit gender stereotype biases. The presence of sexism causes a tendency for women to make decisions based on compassion instead of competence. This however, increases the stereotype that women are the more nurturing compassionate, and emotional gender, furthering implicit biases.
Most of the research done on implicit biases has to do with race, but the next most popular approach is gender and the sexism that creates widespread stereotypes of different genders. This particular study was different because it discussed the motivations behind why the women’s implicit biases seemed to disappear after being exposed to sexism as opposed to men. Women have to deal with a lot of aggressive and blatant sexism in their day-to-day lives then men and is therefore more motivated to disprove the stereotyping of their own gender. Men, do not have the same motivation.
Mental Illness Bias
9. Robb, J., & Stone, J. (2016). Implicit Bias toward People with Mental Illness: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal Of Rehabilitation, 82(4), 3-13.
This article’s purpose was to put together a comprehensive explanation of implicit biases regarding those with mental illnesses. While there are many stigmas regarding those with mental illnesses the main ones addressed in this work are people with mental illnesses are dangerous, incompetent, and responsible for the onset and offset of their condition. This leads to fear, pity and anger towards those that are diagnosed with mental illnesses. A main application of this research would be for rehabilitation professionals and how their implicit biases can interfere with the rehabilitation process.
This article very clearly defines all of the technical terms used, making it a very widely accessible piece of research. This was a much more basic look into the implicit bias of a particular group because not as much research has gone into studying and collecting data on prejudices against those with mental illnesses. The authors also provide an interesting approach to changing the attitudes of those with these biases, by holding both education and contact interventions. This educates those about the real facts of mental illness instead of the widely spread stereotypes and humanizes those they are prejudiced against by putting a face to the whole group of people.
Weight Bias
10. Ritzert, T. R., Anderson, L. M., Reilly, E. E., Gorrell, S., Forsyth, J. P., & Anderson, D. A. (2016). Assessment of weight/shape implicit bias related to attractiveness, fear, and disgust. The Psychological Record, (3), 405. doi:10.1007/s40732-016-0181-4
This article addresses weight and shape related implicit biases and how they are related to attractiveness, fear and disgust for those labeled as overweight. Most of the population of Western countries displays anti-fat bias, saying people who are overweight are lazy, unintelligent, and unsuccessful. However, the research done by these authors shows that the implicit bias for weight and shape is less of an aversion to fatness, and more of a positive bias towards thinness. Research however, showed that people showed both self-thin-attractive biases as well as self-fat-attractive biases.
A study concerning implicit biases about weight and shape is a unique look at unconscious prejudices that has not been addressed regularly. A different perspective is also provided by this study because the main argument against this implicit bias is not that people do not like fat people, it is just more prevalent for people to like thin people. This is also a different kind of study because almost all other things that someone can be judged for and have an implicit bias against is a fixed fact that cannot be changed. One cannot change their race, whether they have a mental illness, or their age, but weight can fluctuate quite severely. This makes room for an implicit bias test towards oneself and the biases we have against our own self-image.