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Racial discrimination
Essays on implicit bias
Essays on implicit bias
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Implicit Bias Reflection Paper What reason does an individual chose their friends? What about their choice of spouse or even their neighborhood? Many of these decisions are influenced by what is called an implicit bias. Throughout this paper, I am going to define implicit bias, how they are formed, and the characteristics of the bias. The next topic of discussion will be how implicit bias are highly influential to our actions and their effects on society. Furthermore, I am going to review my own implicit bias and reflect my attitudes toward those bias. Implicit Bias: Definition, Formation and Characteristics According to a CNN article that I read during my research, “Implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, …show more content…
Your best friends, significant other, even your choice of doctor has been guided by your implicit bias. Our preferences and choices are largely impacted because of the implicit attitudes that are embedded in us. According to a CNN/Kaiser poll taken in August to October of 2015, sixty-eight percent of the people that a person socializes with are the same race as them (Grinberg, 2015). These bias do not just affect the personal relationships that we have, it goes much deeper than that. Unfortunately, these bias influence a great number of our actions which in turn impacts our society as a whole. They can infiltrate themselves into many different levels of our interactions with others. These effects can span from the decision to hire someone down to the medical care that a person receives (Grinbery, 2015). Implicit attitudes are partially responsible for the unfair treatment of the minorities in our society. Treatment such as a white man getting hired over a more qualified man of color. This happens on a daily basis all across our country. A black person is affected by the actions caused by implicit bias thousands of times over the course of their life (Levy …show more content…
I did not want to know if I preferred white over black and I did not want anyone else to be aware of this either. After doing the research for this paper, I found out that awareness and exposure are the only ways to correct an implicit bias. This information persuaded me to take the Black versus White test. My results: I have no automatic preference between white or black people. The outcome of this test was a relief for me, but I will definitely be aware of implicit bias and how they affect our society. Since I began this assignment, I have been encouraging people to take these tests and learn more about
The hidden bias test by Project Implicit was interesting method of determining hidden biases. A hidden bias is, “Biases thought to be absent or extinguished remain as "mental residue" in most of us.”(Teaching Tolerance, 2014). Studies have shown a link between biases and behavior and biases can be revealed through an individual’s actions. If biases are revealed through actions then they must be learned. Teaching Tolerance indicates, “Bias is perpetuated by conformity with in-group attitudes and socialization by the culture at large.” (Teaching Tolerance, 2014). This perspective supports the belief which biases are learned and never forgotten and reestablished through behavior. My perception of biases is they are formed through experiences not group conformity. Culture is important influence in forming biases, yet biases can change. According to Teaching Tolerance, even if a bias still changes it lingers in the unconscious. An interesting perspective, biases continue to stay with each of us even if we think it is hidden.
Furthermore, the authors aim to unfold the scientific logic of their analysis of the effects of hidden biases so people will be “better able to achieve the alignment,” between their behavior and intentions (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) preface
In relation to the “Implicit association test, which measures unconscious bias,” Myers acknowledges that “Seventy percent of white people taking that test prefer white.” Not only do white people prefer someone of their race, but “Fifty percent of black people taking that test prefer white” as well. Informing us of the results from the IAT (Implicit Association Test) helps showcase that there is a clear bias among us that “we’ve been schooled in.” Myers provides this data in order to further justify that we all play a role in the “prejudices that fuel those kinds of tragic incidents” that happened to the black men mentioned in the previous paragraph. Conversely with a grandiose tone, the diversity advocate explains that the problem isn’t so much that “we see color” its “what we do when we see the color.” Verna Myers bringing this issue to light is effective in the sense that it makes her audience re-evaluate their standpoint within these specific instances. Are their prejudices a part of the problem?” Yes. Verna Myers is well aware that “we are not shooting people down in the street” nonetheless, we still contribute to the issue until we are willing to “look within and being to change
Some common ethnic stereotypes are derived out of implicit social cognition, also known as implicit bias. The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity defines implicit bias in their report titled, “Understanding Implicit Bias”. “… Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that effect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner” (“Understanding Implicit Bias”). Stereotypes from implicit bias contrast with others because they are created in one’s subconscious, not necessarily from a palpable event or reason. Implicit biases can become rooted in a person’s subconscious in several different manners. “In addition to early life experiences, the media and news programming are often-cited origins of implicit associations,” says the Kirwan Institute (“Understanding Implicit Bias”). The manner in which the American media portrays specific groups of people influence the implicit biases of the American people. These biases causes people to have feelings or attitudes about other races, ethnicities, age groups, and appearances (“Understanding Implicit
an implicit association test (IAT) measures the attitudes of the cognitive functions which determine judgment. The Implicit Association Test (Race) measures word associations between groups of people of certain race or ethnicity (e.g., European-American, African American) and the concepts of “good” and “bad”. The speed and ease with which an association is made is measured and taken as confirmation for an implicit bias or attitude or belief held for that social group. The IAT will help uncover any hidden prejudice and bring it to the forefront of consciousness to which children can become aware of their biases and possibly through cultural exposure be able to exhibit cultural acceptance (Benaji, M & Greenwald, 2013).
The first Implicit Association Test (IAT) that I took was whether I had a preference for Young people compared to Old people. I chose this IAT because I initially thought that I would have no preference for Young or Old people. Though, I knew I would have some mistakes, I still expected my results to have an equal preference for both young or old people. In addition, this IAT used four categories. The first two categories were images of either a Young or and Old face and the other two categories were the words good or bad. The good or bad categories has at least five words listed.
I admire her critical reflection to her own bias and privilege. This attitude must be "unhidden" curriculum in medical schools. TP Implicit bias has critical relevance to public health practitioners.
For example, an experiment by Ian Ayres involving how car dealers sell to different types of people shows an implicit prejudice of car salesmen. Ayres sent white men, black men, white women, and black women to go to 242 dealership and bargain with a dealer on the price of a car for up to 40 minutes. The results of the experiment revealed that “after lengthy negotiations, Ayres’s black men still ended up with a price that was nearly $800 higher than Ayres’s white men were offered without having to say a word” (Gladwell, 2014, p. 93). The experiment revealed how car dealers used stereotypes from their implicit prejudice to create assumptions of their customers, charging them more or less for the car based on their race and gender. Gladwell (2014) explains this processing saying, “Most salespeople are prone to a classic Warren Harding error. They see someone, and somehow they let the first impression they have about that person’s appearance drown out every other piece of information they manage to gather in that first instant” (p. 91). Part of this erroneous “Thin-slicing” includes falling on stereotypes perpetuated by society, stored as implicit associations in our
Implicit Bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions unconsciously. (Kirwan, 2015) The implicit bias, which includes both favorable and unfavorable being personal, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or voluntary control. The implicit interaction subconscious
If a person has an explicit negative outlook toward a specific group or holds prejudicial feelings, more than likely their implicit attitude would also be the same. In turn someone holding these views would have a biased opinion against such a group or person and would discriminate against someone of said group for no reason other than they are a part of the group.
The IAT (Implicit Associations Test) is a test designed by Harvard to prove that implicit associations exist, despite our personal desire to insist that they do not. Implicit associations are involuntary connotations of objects or concepts that we hold but may not be aware of. Therefore, implicit associations are created through socialization, which is a process in which an individual learns and recreates skills, knowledge, values, motives, and roles appropriate to their position or group in society. Social cognition is how we interpret and apply information about other people which can be modified by implicit associations, but can also determine implicit associations.
Growing up in a very accepting and forward home, I always found myself to be free of most bias. Having been the target of some racial prejudice in the past, I always told myself that I would make sure nobody else had to feel the same way. While this may be a great way to think, it really only covers the fact that you will not have any explicit bias. What I have realized during the course of this class is that implicit bias often has a much stronger effect on us than we might think, and even the most conscious people can be affected.
Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, authors of Anti-Bias Education: for Young Children and Ourselves, provide a great example of an internal bias that results in unfair judgments. “One example is if you were raised to believe that being prompt is a sign of responsibility, and your family always had a car, then it might be hard for you to comprehend the experience of low-income families who chronically drop their children off late due to unreliable buses (pg. 21).” It is little anecdotes like those that make you evaluate your pure un-bias tendencies against certain social identities.
When determining the differences between cognitive bias and implicit bias we must first look at the underlying definitions of what each one means. Implicit bias “refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect ones understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner”. In other words, implicit biases are still sub-conscientious issues and they are activated without knowing or intent. According to Heuer, cognitive biases are considered mental errors that are caused by our simplified information processing strategies. Cognitive biases are predictable and therefore are similar to optical illusions.
Implicit attitudes are positive and negative assessments that occur outside of one’s conscious cognizance and controls. The affirmative or adverse views, feelings, or actions towards individuals ...