Implicit and Explicit Bias First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond Living the Pledge Workshop

How does implicit and explicit bias differ? Attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner Explicit bias lives here Implicit bias lives here

Look at explicit bias “Explicit bias” refers to the attitudes and beliefs we have about a person or group on a conscious level. Much of the time, these biases and their expression arise as the direct result of a perceived threat. When people feel threatened, they are more likely to draw group boundaries to distinguish themselves from others. http://perception.org/research/explicit-bias

Implicit biases are pervasive even people with avowed commitments to impartiality Everyone has them such as judges

Implicit and explicit biases “Hi, I’m Implicit” Related but distinct mental constructs They are not mutually exclusive and may even reinforce each other And I’m Explicit

Do not necessarily align The implicit associations we hold do not necessarily align with our declared beliefs or even reflect stances we would explicitly endorse

Generally favor our own ingroup I wish my people were as smart as others. I love my people! We’re the best! We generally tend to hold implicit biases that favor our own ingroup Though research has shown that we can still hold implicit biases against our ingroup

Malleable Implicit biases are malleable. Our brains are incredibly complex, and the implicit associations that we have formed can be gradually unlearned through a variety of debiasing techniques.

Characteristics of Implicit Bias Summary Pervasive Related but distinct from explicit bias Do not necessarily align with our beliefs Generally favor our ingroup Maleable – can be re-learned

Implicit Association Test PROJECT IMPLICIT https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html Did you take the Race test? How did you do? Did the results surprise you? Do you think they were an accurate representation of your attitudes? How do you feel about the results?

Dateline: Implicit Association Test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Q5FQfXZag

How do explicit and implicit biases contribute to systemic racism?

So how do we change our implicit biases? Increase exposure to people who counter the stereotypes, i.e. build new associations Engage in education about implicit bias Develop a sense of accountability, that is, “the implicit or explicit expectation that one may be called on to justify one’s beliefs, feelings, and actions to others,” can decrease the influence of bias Take the perspective of others Engage in deliberative processing

Resources Material for this session was adapted from research by Perception Insitutute http://perception.org/research/explicit-bias/ Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu Project Implicit https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html