Biased

Key Concepts

We see those in our own group more clearly than others, instead painting the latter with broad generalizations

“For nearly fifty years, scientists have been documenting the fact that people are much better at recognizing faces of their own race than faces of other races—a finding dubbed the ‘other-race effect.’” (p. 13)

Our minds are evolved to categorize, and this is the basis of bias

“The sort of categorization that allows such broad generalizations to somehow seem reasonable is a product not only of our personal experience and social messaging but also of our evolution as human beings.” (p. 23)

“The process of making these connections is called bias. It can happen unintentionally. It can happen unconsciously. It can happen effortlessly. And it can happen in a matter of milliseconds. These associations can take hold of us no matter our values, no matter our conscious beliefs, no matter what kind of person we wish to be in the world.” (p. 32)

We perceive black people as more dangerous and threatening

“Our ideas about race are shaped by the stereotypes to which we are exposed on a daily basis. And one of the strongest stereotypes in American society associates blacks with criminality.” (p. 6)

“They found that participants were quicker to press “shoot” when there was a gun present than they were to press “don’t shoot” when there was no gun present. Yet they also found a race effect. Participants were even faster to respond “shoot” to a black person holding a gun than they were to a white person holding a gun. They were also more likely to mistakenly “shoot” a black person with no gun.” (p. 68)

Once biased ideas are in our heads, they affect what we pay attention to and how we see others

Our brains are constantly being bombarded with stimuli. And just as we categorize to impose order and coherence on that chaos, we use selective attention to tune in to what seems most salient. Science has shown that people don’t attend willy-nilly to things. We choose what to pay attention to based on the ideas that we already have in our heads. (p. 143)

In many ways, this is how bias operates. It conditions how we look at the world and the people within it, despite our conscious motivations and desires, and even when such conditioning can put us in harm’s way. Just as drivers are conditioned by how the roads are constructed in their native land, so too are we conditioned by racial narratives that narrow our vision and bias how we see the people around us. (p. 170)

Having more contact with people from other groups only reduces bias when those interactions are meaningful

The benefits of interracial contact are conditional. As social psychologist Gordon Allport outlined in his 1954 classic, The Nature of Prejudice, contact has a much greater chance of piercing bias when the interactions meet a long list of conditions, including that the contact is between people of equal status, is condoned by authorities, and is personal rather than superficial. (p. 199)

There is a long way to go to reduce bias in corporations, despite a surface commitment to diversity

“Diversity” has been a corporate watchword since before they were born. That’s supposed to reflect an enthusiastic embrace of new perspectives and a willingness to hear and accommodate previously marginalized voices. Instead, it seems to have become a numbers game. Companies want to check the boxes but not change their culture. So young people are desperately tailoring themselves to fit in to those boxes. (p. 269)

“Among those conditions, speed and ambiguity are two of the strongest triggers of bias. When we are forced to make quick decisions using subjective criteria, the potential for bias is great. Yet more often than not, these are the very conditions under which hiring managers make initial decisions about job candidates. Due to the volume of applications and inevitable time constraints, managers may spend an average of only six seconds reviewing each résumé they receive.” (pp. 285-6)

Bias training is one step, but leaders should watch that it doesn’t allow people to accept bias under the guise of “it’s natural” rather than acting to mitigate its effects

The promise of bias training is not to magically wipe out prejudice but to make us aware of how our minds work and how knee-jerk choices can be driven by stereotypes that cloud what we see and perceive. Done well, training can make employees more mindful of how they interact with co-workers and customers. (p. 279)

But the problem with narrowly settling for that perspective is that it can lead us to care less about the danger associated with bias, instead of more. When something is regarded as a norm, people cease to judge it harshly. (p. 281)

Quotables

“Yet researchers have found that even in popular television shows that feature black characters playing such roles, white actors tend to react more negatively to black actors than to other white actors on-screen. This bias is exhibited through subtle, nonverbal actions—a squint, a slight grimace, a small shift of the body—yet it still has impact. It leads those viewers who tune in to those shows to exhibit more bias themselves.” (p. 41)

“To understand police-community relations, we need to consider not only basic facts about how our minds are designed to work, but our history and our culture as well. Every encounter police officers and community members have with each other happens in a larger societal context that shapes how each responds.” (p. 74)

“In fact, when black drivers are pulled over, they are more than twice as likely as white drivers to have been stopped for a high-discretion equipment violation as opposed to a moving violation.” (p. 101)

“Officers were significantly more respectful to white drivers than they were to black drivers: more likely to use formal titles with white drivers (for example, “sir” or “ma’am”); more likely to express concern for the safety of white drivers (with “Have a safe night” or “Drive safely”); more likely to offer reassurance to white drivers (as in “Don’t worry” or “No problem”).” (p. 104)

“Blacks remain strapped to the ape association by a history of slavery, present-day disparities in almost every significant domain of life, and a collection of overlapping racial stereotypes that reinforce those inequities. In addition to being dark, blacks are seen as cognitively challenged, big, dangerous, aggressive, violent, unrestrained brutes—the very features that, unfortunately, many associate with apes.” (p. 149)

“The house hunters we queried evaluated the house being sold by the black Thomas family more negatively than the identical house occupied by the white family and predicted that more would need to be done to spruce it up to attract buyers. In fact, simply imagining other black families in the neighborhood led them to set the value of the home at nearly $22,000 less.” (p. 161)

“Even very young children can be affected by these kinds of biases. In one study conducted by a team of researchers at the Yale Child Study Center, early education providers were shown a series of videos depicting four preschoolers—a black boy, black girl, white boy, and white girl—sitting together at a table engaging in “traditional classroom activities” for their age. They were told to study the video clips for signs of behaviors that could become problematic. Using eye-tracking devices to monitor their gazes, the researchers found the preschool teachers spent more time looking at the black children, and at the black boys in particular. Before they even enter kindergarten, black children are already considered more likely to misbehave than white children.” (p. 215)