Understanding Unconscious Bias Dr Tom Verghese 19th October 2017

Bias Preference (+ve or –ve) for an individual or group based on attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes Can be explicit (aware/conscious) or implicit (unaware/unconscious)

Simple logic In a department store, a ping-pong paddle and a plastic ball cost $1.10 If the paddle costs $1 more, how much is the ball?

11 million pieces of information 40-50 11 million pieces of information According to neuroscience, we are exposed to 11 million pieces of information at any one time, but can only deal with 40-50. That’s why we create categories and make assumptions. It helps us to make sense of things.   We notice someone’s skin colour in 100 milliseconds, someone’s gender in 150 milliseconds. Unconscious bias can impact many decisions we make – whether it’s a hiring related decision or just day-to-day decisions involving people. Although we like to think that all hiring is based on merit, the reality is that our unconscious bias can influence our thinking and decisions. Bias is normal. We all have biases – it’s an essential part of being human. The key is recognising them and acting on them, and it takes work every day to do this.

What do you see?

Confirmation bias – key points: We make decisions in a split of a second – then seek to confirm the information we need to persuade ourselves We are prone to jump to conclusions based on previous expectations - we don’t process all the relevant information How might this bias come into play at work and to what effect?

Let the participants call out what they ‘see’. There is no dog here. This is a random set of black and white dots on a computer generated screen. But we primed your brain to go looking for an animal. What question did we ask? This is an example of a priming, and it can happen easily in the workplace. Think about how we introduce people for example, or ‘warn’ a team member about a manager. Has anyone ever been told to ‘be careful’ with a person? Source: Binna Kandola

Accountability Self Others Question your first impressions Ask for feedback Justify your decisions Others Call out bias Ask others to justify their decisions Make decisions collaboratively

Implementation Intention Plan Tangible, specific instruction in the form of ‘when… then’ statement “When I see a team member is consistently quiet in meetings, then I will actively encourage them to share their opinion and help them to feel included” “When I recognise that I’m hearing the opinions of the dominant majority group, then I will seek out views from those outside of that group”

“If you’re not consciously including people, you could be unconsciously excluding them.” Elizabeth Broderick, Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, 2014

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