Implicit Bias Essay

In psychology, we have discussed many topics concerning implicit and explicit biases when it comes to race. Implicit bias is the attitudes that impact our actions unconsciously; explicit bias refers to the attitudes that we have towards a particular person or group on a conscious level. We can see cases of implicit bias make judgements about or acts differently towards a person or group based on their race, gender or any other physical or non-physical characteristic. According to Michael Brownstein, there has been overwhelming evidence that shows that individual’s, despite their conscious beliefs, all exhibit some sort of implicit bias (Brownstein, 2017). For example, the study named Police Language in Traffic Stops Show Hidden Bias is an example of police officers’ implicit bias towards African Americans. This study will be examined more in detail throughout this paper First, we will look to examine the methods and results used to conduct this study, and then transition to the relation of this study to the methods I learned in Psychology 101.

Eberhardt has had the opportunity to develop a working relationship with the Oakland Police Department as they too are looking for ways to improve and develop new methods that will decrease implicit bias of all officers. In order to accomplish this, the team looked into various traffic stop data that was collected by the OPD through their police officers’ body cameras in 2013 and 2014(Police). Due to these well-kept records, Eberhardt was able to analyze over 28,000 recordings recorded by approximately 500 police officers (Police). From there, the team had to set various operational definitions and parameters to determine whether or not police officer exhibit an implicit bias towards different groups of