People are responsible for the actions they commit due to implicit biases if and only if they know that they harbor such biases and if they have been given recommendations as to how to eliminate them. If a person only knows that they harbor implicit biases, that is not enough to consider one responsible for their actions, since the said person does not know how to fix their implicit biases. It also is not enough for someone to only know how to eliminate implicit biases, since they don’t have obvious implicit biases to be responsible for. Implicit biases and explicit biases are not the same concept, and there are major differences between the two. Implicit biases are unconscious and automatic reactions to situations that show prejudiced judgement …show more content…
Consider the following hypothetical case. Randall Brown is a 35-year-old white male that is carrying a concealed Glock 19. He is on a train car heading out of town. Three 20-year-olds come up to him unarmed, and they say “Give me a dollar,” in an intimidating and reckless way. Randall then pulls out his gun. The three children back off, and said “Don’t shoot, we didn’t know you were armed.” Randall then shoots the first person dead, and keeps doing so until there is only one person left. He then stops shooting. By the argument that I made previously, Randall would be innocent of all charges, and if he harmed anyone again, he would be charged since he knows of his implicit biases. That however, is not the case. Firstly, they backed down, so they were not in direct threat to Randall’s right to life or property. Secondly, Randall’s intent clearly was not to defend himself, since he only killed 2 of the 3 people. Since Randall’s right to life was not threatened and he was not trying to defend himself, he was responsible for his actions even though he was unsure he had implicit biases against people that mugged
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
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.
Implicit and explicit biases are related mental constructs. For many years, even dating back to our great’s ancestor, people always have automatic judge people, places, and things. We were all given five senses, knowing how the brain works, we choose to use our conscious actions to judge. Without awareness, we usually act on those judgments. There are two types of judgments consciously and unconsciously.
Implicit bias is when an individual hold subconscious stereotypes. The definition of implicit bias is unconscious and unspoken bias. That definition is used in all different kinds of people, other color, gender, age and transgender people.
Imagine, a person is sitting in their classroom in college. He or she is focused on listening to the teacher, because he or she needs to pass the final exam in order to graduate. All of a sudden, an intruder charges through the door. The intruder pulls out a gun and starts blasting bullets throughout the classroom. There is nowhere to run and there is no way to fight back. Everyone is hit and on the floor, bleeding. This person is so close to graduating and starting a new life. Now his life has been cut short, because there was someone who illegally brought a gun to a school. Because the school had a symbol of “no guns allowed”. Because the intruder knew there was no one else could shoot back. Now imagine if that student, dying on the floor,
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).
Tom is running full speed, maybe even for his life. It is a perfect summer night in San Jose, and Tom and his work partner just left work minutes before. They were walking through a “bad neighborhood” when some thugs started hassling them, and yelling obscenities at them. Tom and his friend walked by them quickly soon to be chased by the thugs. The thugs were threatening Tom and his friend’s life. Tom and his friend continue to run till the reach a busy intersection where Tom pulls out a semi-automatic handgun from his backpack and points it towards the thugs. As soon as the gun is leveled the thugs retreat leaving the two men alone. If there had been no gun Tom and his friend would have been seriously beaten or even killed. Tom did not have a permit for the gun, and might have not been able to get one without a special reason (Rauch 731). People like Tom need to be able to get gun permits, but it is so difficult because of all the criminal activity in America. Gun control laws are pointless and are only binding on the law-abiding citizens.
Gun-control laws are a very controversial topic right now in the U.S., especially when it comes to allowing concealed-carry holders on college campuses. Nevertheless, guns should be permitted for concealed carry on college campuses if the carriers have concealed-carry licenses because mass shootings occur mostly in gun-free zones. There have been many incidents in which concealed-carry holders have disarmed attackers, and concealed-carry holders are overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens. However, the argument’s opponents believe guns should not be allowed on college campuses for various reasons, including: professors might be afraid to issue bad grades, a gun may go off by accident, college
In the United States of America, there is much debate about the effectiveness and practicality of concealed firearms. Many citizens today are trying to support their claim with old, outdated evidence and targeted research to attempt to prove a point, but can not escape the truth. Although Concealed firearms may sound appealing to reduce crime rates and stop violence, new evidence suggests otherwise. Recently there has been trends of certain lunatics who own guns that decide to shoot innocent people, justifying the need for more strict gun control laws. The purpose of this paper is to educate and inform about the immensely important topic of concealed firearms, with focus on what effect it has on society and crime rates. We will go over modern
Over the past few years there have been many incidents when children bring guns to school and shoot their fellow classmate(s) and/or teacher(s). The most recent and probably most tragic happened in 1998 at Colombine High School in Colorado when a group of students entered the school and murdered several students and a teacher. The first thing that everyone wondered once they finally heard the news is how the children got the guns? Supporters of gun control believe that if there were harsher gun laws, a lot of the school shootings would have never taken plac...
Today in the United States many people argue over the fact of guns being legal or illegal. There are people using guns for personal safety and there are others who use them for crimes, as well as for other situations. Firearm deaths in the United States have slowly been decreasing from year to year with all these bills getting passed to promote a safer country than ever before. Guns are the main weapon for youth suicide, school shootings, and for committing murder. In 2010 there were 2,711 infants, child, and teenage firearm deaths. As in school shootings and in committing murder, studies show shooters often had multiple, non-automatic guns, shootings were planned, most youth tell before shooting, shooters have a history of being bullied or threatened, shooters have mental issues, and shooters have done suicidal gestures before (Gun Control with School Shootings). Although there are people who use guns for murdering, there are also those who oppose guns being used without the proper requirements. 85% of all respondents to the survey supporting requiring states to report people to national background-checks systems who are prohibited from owning gu...
“Numerous studies have estimated that there are anywhere from 800,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses every year in the United States. According to a widely cited study by Gary Kleck, a criminology professor at Florida State University, there are 2.2 million to 2.5 million defensive gun uses annually. A sample of those cases revealed that 8.2 percent were defenses against attempted rape and sexual assault, and 30.4 percent were defenses against other types of assault” (Expanded On-Campus Gun Rights). When establishing the gun-free zones that are currently in place at many campuses around the United States, only ensures occupants of these zones are essentially helpless against an aggressor who is willing to break the law. In allowing a controlled, concealed handgun in this area, students would able to protect themselves from someone who intended to cause harm upon them with a firearm, thus causing the perpetrator to reassess his current
The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is a concept within social psychology that assumes when someone is aggressive, it is due to a flaw in their personality as opposed to a reaction to their personal circumstances (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2015). However, there is typically a situational reason for the other person’s behavior that is not taken into account through the FAE (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2015). I have been guilty of making the FAE myself; for example, I can think of two situations where my frustration led me to believe that there were flaws in my antagonists’ characters. Recently, my mother wanted me to assist my brother in scheduling classes for the semester. Since I was annoyed that my mother was insisting that I assist him when
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.
What is unconscious bias? When asked this question, many people are hesitant to respond or they may not know the answer. But, it is quite simple. Unconscious bias can be defined as biases that we have but are not fully aware of. It becomes just “something we do,” essentially, it has been normalized and it is something rooted in our brains. Many times unconscious bias can also be referred to as implicit bias. There are many ways to define what this simple phrase means but, the best definition comes from the Kirwan Institute. The Kirwan Institute describes implicit/unconscious bias as “the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner” (). Essentially, we may not know that we are being biased towards a certain person or group of people in our everyday lives. Many times this kind of behavior can find its way into the workplace and we being to make unconscious judgements about the employees that we work with on a day to day basis. With that being said, all members of society should work to defeat unconscious bias and I believe that starting with the workplace will help to make it a habit in our lives.