Implicit Bias
CTIE Workshop
September 29, 2016
Workshop Goals
n 
Understand implicit bias: what it is, how it works
n 
Develop awareness of how it impacts our teaching
and professional lives
n 
Develop strategies for counteracting and
overcoming implicit bias
2
Understanding Implicit Bias
n 
The automatic mind
n 
The categorizing mind
n 
The socially embedded mind
3
Understanding Implicit Bias:
The Automatic Mind
n 
Much of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
determined by unconscious, automatic processes.
Experiencing the automatic
mind
read these words
blue
yellow
red
black
green
purple
white
orange
Experiencing the automatic
mind name these ink colors
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
Experiencing the automatic
mind
name these ink colors
green
white
blue
yellow
red
black
purple
orange
Automatic associations:
Priming
8
Understanding Implicit Bias:
The Automatic Mind
n 
Much of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
determined by unconscious, automatic processes.
¨ 
We can’t access or report on these automatic
processes
¨ 
Many of them can be controlled and/or corrected
for, but this takes awareness and effort
Understanding Implicit Bias:
Categorization
n 
Categorization is instantaneous and automatic
n 
Humans are the most important group of things
we categorize!
Categorization is instantaneous
n 
Automaticity of social categorization (Rule et al.,
Psychological Science, 2009).
n  Participants (n = 40) completed a lexical
decision-making task
n  Words were mix of stereotypically gay (rainbow,
fabulous) or stereotypically straight (rough,
football)
n  Before each word, were primed with face of gay
or straight male
n  DV: how quickly do people identify words?
11
Categorization is instantaneous
n 
Automaticity of social categorization (Rule et al.,
Psychological Science, 2009).
Response
latency (ms)
12
Categorization is instantaneous
n 
Once we categorize someone, all the concepts
related to that category are primed (activated).
13
Categorization is instantaneous…
and consequential
Once we categorize someone, all the concepts
related to that category are primed (activated).
n  Weapon bias (Payne, 2006, Current Directions in
n 
Psychological Science)
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Participants determine whether object is weapon or tool
Half of tools preceded by flash of black face, half by white
face
Followed by mask
Responded at own pace (slow) or within 1/2 second (fast)
14
Categorization is instantaneous…
and consequential
n 
Weapon bias (Payne, 2006, Current Directions in
Psychological Science)
15
Categorization is instantaneous…
and consequential
Weapon bias (Payne, 2006, Current Directions in
Psychological Science)
0.4
probability of error
n 
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
White face
0.15
Black face
0.1
0.05
0
False False False False
"gun" "tool" "gun" "tool"
fast
slow
16
Understanding Implicit Bias:
Social Context
We are obligatorily social creatures!
n  We want to fit in, we learn from others.
n 
n 
We are canaries in a (biased) coal mine: we
breathe in the associations and biases that we are
surrounded by.
Our biased social context…
n 
Photo captions after Hurricane Katrina
18
Our biased social context
Dixon & Linz, 2000. Journal of Communication.
Base%rate%comparison%between%nightly%
news%portrayal%and%actual%arrest%rates%
Percentage
n 
50"
40"
30"
20"
10"
0"
Arrest"rate"
TV"perp"rate"
Black"
La.no"
White"
19
Small group discussion:
Explore your own automatic,
categorizing mind
What kinds of categories do you use to think
about people?
n  Have you ever caught yourself in an act of
implicit bias?
n  What kind of biased air did you breathe in as a
child?
n 
Implicit bias in our professional
lives: How bias manifests
n 
It’s a really long, depressing list…
People of all walks of life and professions show
bias against a variety of outgroups…
n  …in a variety of ways.
n 
Implicit bias in our professional
lives: How bias manifests
Implicit bias in our professional
lives: How bias manifests
n 
Note: people in positions of power, authority and
privilege have much more power to do harm with
their implicit biases than people in marginalized
positions.
Self fulfilling prophecy
n 
Word, Zanna, & Cooper, 1974. Participants took
part in study for Career Services on interviewing.
Study 1: naïve white participants interview trained
black and white interviewees
¨  Dependent measures
¨ 
n  Immediacy:
distance between two chairs, forward lean,
eye contact, shoulder orientation
n  Length of interview
n  Speech error rate
24
Self fulfilling prophecy
Behavior
Distance
Forward lean
Interview length
Speech errors
Blacks
62 in
-9°
9 min
3.5 error/min
Whites
58 in
-6°
13 min
2.4 error/min
25
Self fulfilling prophecy
n 
Study 2: Trained white confederates interviewed
white interviewees.
Half got high immediacy nonverbals, longer
interviews, etc.; half got low immediacy nonverbals
and shorter interviews
¨  Dependent measures
¨ 
n  Judge’s
ratings of interview performance
n  Non-verbal immediacy behavior of interviewee
n  Interviewees’ post-interview moods and attitudes
toward interviewer.
26
Self fulfilling prophecy
Response
Nonimmediate
Immediate
Applicant
performance
Distance
1.44
2.22
73 in
57 in
Speech errors
5 errors/min
3 errors/min
Interviewer
friendliness
4.33
6.60
27
Implicit bias in our professional
lives: Exacerbating factors
n  When
is implicit bias most likely to occur?
¨  When
we’re not trying to counteract it!
¨  When we are distracted/multi-tasking
¨  When we are exhausted/depleted
¨  When we are defensive
Implicit bias in our professional
lives: Exacerbating factors
n  If
you learned the stereotypes, they are
going to affect your behavior at least
some of the time.
Small group discussion: Where
might bias occur in your
professional life?
n  What
situations in your work life are places
where implicit bias could occur?
n  What
situations in your work life create the
conditions that make implicit bias more likely
to occur?
Strategies for counteracting
and overcoming implicit bias
n  Good
news! There is a lot of great
research on this, and there are things we
can do!
Strategies for counteracting
and overcoming implicit bias
n  Capitalizing
on a supportive situation
¨  Structure
your professional environment to
minimize the opportunity for bias
n  E.g.,
blind grading
Strategies for counteracting
and overcoming implicit bias
n  Capitalizing
¨  Change
¨  Make
on automaticity: retrain your brain
your automatic associations
your correction processes automatic
Strategies for counteracting
and overcoming implicit bias
n  Capitalizing
on good intentions (conscious
thought)
¨  Retraining
your brain takes effort and
commitment
Habit-breaking intervention
n 
Habits can be broken if… (Devine et al., 2012)
People become aware of implicit bias
¨  People become concerned about its negative
effects (autonomously motivated)
¨  People use strategies over time to reduce the bias
¨ 
35
Habit-breaking intervention
n 
Habits can be broken if… (Devine et al., 2012)
Participants assigned to control or intervention
condition
¨  Completed multiple measures of implicit and
explicit bias
¨ 
36
Habit-breaking intervention
Habits can be broken if… (Devine et al., 2012)
n  Intervention:
n 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Made aware of bias via IAT score
Learned how implicit bias affects behavior
Taught strategies for unlearning habit
37
Habit-breaking intervention
Habits can be broken if… (Devine et al., 2012)
n  Strategies included:
n 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Stereotype replacement
Counter-stereotypic imaging
Individuation
Perspective taking
Increasing opportunities for contact
38
Habit-breaking intervention
39
Habit-breaking intervention
40
Bias Reduction Contest!
n 
Lai et al, (2014). Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, Vol. 143, No. 4, 1765–1785
Psychologists invited to design interventions to
reduce implicit prejudice
¨  17 entries each tested 3 – 4 times (N = 17,000)
¨ 
41
Bias Reduction Contest!
n 
Lai et al, (2014). Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, Vol. 143, No. 4, 1765–1785
n 
Strategies included
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Engaging with others’ perspectives (3)
Exposure to counterstereotypic exemplars (5)
Appeals to egalitarian values (5)
Evaluative conditioning (2)
Inducing moral elevation (1)
Implementation strategies (1)
Faking it (1)
42
Bias Reduction Contest!
Cohen’s d ︎ reduction in implicit preferences relative to control; White circles ︎
the meta-analytic mean effect size; Black circles ︎ individual study effect sizes;
Lines ︎ 95% confidence intervals around meta-analytic mean effect sizes.
43
Bias Reduction Contest!
n 
Lai et al, (2014). Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, Vol. 143, No. 4, 1765–1785
n 
And the winners were:
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Vivid counterstereotypic scenario
Shifting group boundaries through competition (2)
IAT w/ counterstereotypic exemplars
Faking the IAT
Using implementation intentions
Evaluative conditioning (2)
Prime multiculturalism
44
Strategies for counteracting and
overcoming implicit bias
n 
Harnessing motivation: Self determination theory
n 
The more autonomous and freely determined a
goal, the more consistent one will be in acting in
accordance with it.
Legault, L., Green-Demers, I., Grant, P., & Chung, J. (2007). Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(5), 732-749.
45
Strategies for counteracting and
overcoming implicit bias
n 
Harnessing motivation: Self determination theory
n 
Non-self determined prejudice motivation
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Cognition: complex and discrepant
Behavior: inefficient and inconsistent
Experiential: aversive, unpleasant, conflicted
Legault, L., Green-Demers, I., Grant, P., & Chung, J. (2007). Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(5), 732-749.
46
Strategies for counteracting and
overcoming implicit bias
n 
Harnessing motivation: Self determination theory
n 
Self determined prejudice motivation
¨ 
¨ 
¨ 
Cognition: simple and consonant
Behavior: efficient and consistent
Experiential: gratifying, satisfying and harmonious
Legault, L., Green-Demers, I., Grant, P., & Chung, J. (2007). Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(5), 732-749.
47
Small group discussion: How
might you implement these
strategies in your professional
life?
n  How
might you retrain your brain?
n  How
might you act on your good intentions?
Commitments
n What
is one thing you commit to
doing differently going forward?