Analysis Of See No Bias By Shankar Vedantam

After reading See No Bias by Shankar Vedantam I have learned that many people are unaware their biases. Mahzarin Banaji took a bias test, now known as the Implicit Association Test and her results stated she had a biased for whites over blacks. She didn’t understand her results because she is a minority too. She did an experiment where she had people picking from a list of unknown names. “The experiment showed how subtle cues can cause errors without people 's awareness.” Millions of people have taking the bias test and large majorities of people showed biases, even if they said they had no biases. The results also showed that minorities had the same biases as the majority groups. For example, “Some 48 percent of blacks showed a pro-white or anti-black bias; 36 percent of Arab

The author explains that the problem is that even if the results state you have biases, people might not act in a biases manner. Another reason to limit the test is that people can fool the test by thinking of counter-stereotypes while taking the test. No one knows exactly why people develop biases. The only thing that has reduced biases is having close friendships with people of other ethnic groups. Having counter-stereotypical experiences has proven to lower biases and change how one thinks. However, these experiences will not eliminate biases altogether. Banaji believes that in order to eliminate biases we need to be conscious of our biases and make a conscious effort to stop thinking bias. For example, engaging with people you typically wouldn’t normally talk to can help eliminate biases. I like to think I hang out with a diverse group of people, but I also know that I am bias. I totally agree with the author that in order to eliminate biases people need to make a conscious effort to change. After reading this article I am going to engage with people I normally don’t in order to lower my