Reducing Personal Bias

What are biases? Why do they develop? How do they affect us?

Bias can be defined as a predisposition or preference for a particular person, group, or perspective. They are usually not based on fact or reason, but rather a combination of factors such as age, gender, race, culture, personal experience, and more. Because they are not fact-based, biases can often result in unfair treatment toward a person or group of people. Gordon Allport, the author of “The Nature of Prejudice”, explains that bias is a result of our very human tendency to classify people into categories in order to quickly process information and make sense of the world around us (Allport, 1954).

Where Do Biases Come From?

One source of bias is cultural and societal norms, which have the power to influence our beliefs and attitudes towards certain groups. For example, cultural norms surrounding masculinity dictate the way men are “supposed to” dress or act, which may lead to discrimination against men who choose to break from those norms by wearing makeup or showing interest in things typically thought of as feminine, such as fashion. Biases based on societal norms can cause marginalized groups to face discrimination in many areas of life, including employment, education, and healthcare.

Personal experience is another means through which we can form biases. For example, if we have negative experiences with one person belonging to a particular group, those experiences may influence our perceptions and behaviours towards another person we meet from that group in the future.

Finally, cognitive processes can also lead to the development of biases. Cognitive biases, which will be discussed in more detail later, can sometimes cause us to ignore information that contradicts our existing beliefs in favour of mental “shortcuts.” Cognitive biases can lead to error-prone judgment and decision-making that are not based on facts.

Examples of Biases

Biases exist in a wide range of contexts. Some common examples of biases are explained below.

Gender bias refers to the act of favouring one gender over another, based on the person’s real or perceived gender identity.

Racial bias is making judgments about a person based solely on their race and is often rooted in racial stereotypes.

Age bias is the tendency to prefer one age group over another, and often involves discrimination against older people. However, it can go either way.

Cognitive Biases

Cognitive biases are biases that are based on how our brains process information and have the ability to affect our decision-making and problem-solving abilities. Some types of cognitive biases are explained below.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to intentionally seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs while ignoring information that contradicts them. This bias can be particularly strong when we feel strongly about a topic or have a personal stake in the outcome.

Availability bias is when we rely on information that is easily accessible or readily available. This can lead to overestimating the likelihood of rare events or underestimating the likelihood of more common events.

Anchoring bias occurs when we rely too heavily on the first piece of information that we receive when making decisions. This can lead to an overreliance on initial impressions or data which may not always be accurate.

Framing bias happens when we are influenced by the way information is presented or framed. This can lead to making decisions based on whether the options were presented with positive or negative connotations.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe that past events were more predictable than they really were. You may have heard the saying “hindsight is 20/20”, meaning that when we look back on things the answers seem more clear than they did at the time.

Strategies to Reduce Bias

Below is a list of research-based techniques published by the U.S. Justice Department to help reduce your own implicit biases. This guide is specifically designed in the context of policing, however, it is very helpful as a general resource.

Stereotype Replacement: This strategy involves first identifying that a response is stereotypical, labelling it as such and considering why it may have occurred, and choosing alternate responses to use in the future to avoid the stereotypical response.
Individuation: This is the act of giving individuality to persons in a group, and helps you to avoid making biased assumptions about an individual based on their group membership. To do this, you should try to gather information about that individual such as their history, qualifications, experiences, and achievements before making a judgment about them.
Perspective Taking: This approach involves taking a first-person perspective of a member of a group. If you are attempting to overcome gender biases, try to imagine how you would feel if you lost job opportunities based on assumptions about family responsibilities or questions about your competence to do the job. This thought process can help you to empathize and understand the implications of biases against that group (Devine et al., 2012).
Increased Opportunities for Contact: This technique involves seeking out opportunities to engage with groups you may have biases against in a positive way. Having positive personal experiences with people of a certain group can help to alter associations you may have about them. This way, when thinking about members of that group in the future, your perceptions about them will come from these positive experiences rather than from societal stereotypes about them.

Notes

It is important to understand that we all have biases, and they are not necessarily intentional or conscious. In fact, not all biases are necessarily bad.

Biases are often unconscious and automatic, so they are not within our control. By becoming aware of our own personal biases and their impact on our attitudes and behaviours, we can work to overcome them and strive for greater fairness, equity, and compassion in our interactions with those who are different from us. This can be done in a number of ways, such as through introspection, seeking out diverse perspectives, and challenging our own assumptions and beliefs.

References

Allport, G. W., Clark, K., & Pettigrew, T. (1954). The nature of prejudice.

Devine, P. G., Forscher, P. S., Austin, A. J., & Cox, W. T. (2012). Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention. Journal of experimental social psychology, 48(6), 1267-1278.

U.S. Justice Department. (n.d.). Understanding Bias: A Resource Guide. Justice.gov.

Categories: : Wisdom