Introduction
A recent conversation with my cousin, who was moving to London, highlighted a concerning issue: an unconscious bias that made him prejudiced.
What did they say that made me feel concerned?
“I am not racist but when I got out of the station, I noticed that it was mostly people of x community walking around. I didn’t feel safe at all.”
This is unconscious bias in action. And as this bias made my cousin feel unsafe among a community of people of a race, and is therefore discriminating against a race, it is racism. The technical term for this particular bias is Perception bias.
What is Unconscious Bias?
Our failure to be rational and logical is a result of unconscious biases. The term unconscious is used because these biases happen without us even knowing about them. They are automatic and occur in a split second.
The fact that being amongst a group of people belonging to a certain race makes one feel unsafe is because one’s brain has made some decisions based on a small set of experiences or anecdotes that made one feel like an entire race is somehow threatening. Sounds familiar? This is exactly what happened to the muslim community after 9/11. - We even gave it a name - Islamophobia because of how widespread the issue was! We have all seen cases on the news where muslims around the world face all sorts of discrimination from awkward looks and stares to being the target of hostile verbal and physical attacks, all because someone felt uncomfortable or unsafe in the presence of someone perceived to be a Muslim. That’s how cruel these biases can make humans.
Throughout history, biases have played a crucial role in human survival, helping our ancestors quickly assess threats and make decisions. However, in today’s modern society, these biases can lead to unfair and harmful judgments.
Everyone has these biases and they come into play many times a day, with every interaction we have. Unbeknownst to us, we judge every person we see and meet. These are shortcuts that our brain uses constantly.
Why is this bad?
Unconscious biases can lead to discrimination based on various factors such as race, gender, age, neuro-divergence, legal sex, and physical or mental disabilities.
Some common examples of these types of biases that may result in discrimination:
- assuming a woman is less competent in a technical role
- believing an older person is less adaptable to new technologies
- believing that a strong woman is not a biological woman but a man instead - something that became particularly popular during Olympics
These unconscious biases don’t always lead to violent consequences but they can stir quite a civil unrest and can often lead to some form of discrimination that negatively impacts the victim of the bias.
For example, in the instance that sparked this blog post, where although the consequence is harmless to the race against which he is biased; my cousin’s bias is making him want to avoid living or being in the vicinity of a group of people based on their race.
In this instance, my cousin’s irrational fear, triggered by the skin color of the people in the area, exemplifies how unconscious bias can manifest as racist behaviour. Recognizing and addressing these biases are essential for fostering a more inclusive and equitable society. Let’s explore some of the dangers.
Dangers to job or career opportunities
Unconscious biases may come into play when reviewing a CV of a candidate when you are hiring someone. Your brain’s shortcut judgement mechanism could be robbing someone of their opportunity because for some reason, you don’t favour their community or background or you have some irrational fears or doubts over their ability to perform which you’ve attributed to them.
These are the biases that come into play when a senior manager decides
- to promote a white person over someone from an ethnic minority
- or promote a man over a woman,
- or a neurotypical over a neuro-divergent
despite all the candidates demonstrating similar potential.
These bias oriented decisions create a vicious cycle where a vast majority of people in senior leadership positions tend to come from a certain ethnic group or those from a majority group, who all share similar unconscious biases who then continue to do the same, increasing the divide between ethnic groups even further.
How do you deal with this?
It is incredibly hard to deal with unconscious biases. Most people struggle to admit that their biases might have played a role in their decision as they fear being judged as unfair. This is especially true amongst people working in leadership positions as they have to maintain an image about themselves to the rest of the organisation.
Unconscious biases cannot be completely removed from our brains. They can however be managed. Being aware of these biases is the first step. The next thing to do is actively challenge our bias when we become aware that our bias is influencing a key decision.
Have a small debate in your head, let me state some examples to combat the bias that triggered this blog post:
- Why do I feel unsafe?
- What have this group done to me or to others that make me think this way?
- If this was a group of an alternate community, why would I feel safer?
As you challenge your thoughts, you realise that you don’t really have rational answers to your questions. This might take some practice to finally accept that it was indeed an irrational implicit bias. But once you’ve accepted it, all you have to do is act rationally based on what you learned.
Simple? Yes, if you are extremely self aware and have no ego getting in the way of admitting your mistakes. If you find it difficult, maybe you need to work on your self awareness and challenge your ego. Understanding that we are all a work in progress is a great start. Accepting the fact that we are inherently biased is also a good motivator.
I hope I’ve triggered some thoughts and actions. I hope you’ll do better next time.