Everyday Bias: How to Identify and Overcome Unconscious Judgments in Daily Life | Personal Growth & Workplace Diversity Guide

Howards Ross’s book Everyday Bias teaches readers what unconscious bias is and its relationship to brain functioning, its influence on our lives, and how to mitigate its negative impacts. Ross uses storytelling, personal anecdotes, and scientific studies to weave a compelling case for the moral imperative of both understanding unconscious bias and addressing its impacts at individual, organizational, and societal levels.In Everyday Bias, Ross asserts that we all have unconscious bias, and this condition affects every aspect of our lives. Ross points to hundreds of tests by psychologists and others over the last two decades that reveal that human beings are consistently, routinely, and profoundly biased.Ross lays out the premise that the human brain’s amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex, function to keep human beings safe and regulate our responses to real and perceived fear. The amygdala is always on the lookout for experiences that can be dangerous--comparing our current experiences (sights, smells, feelings, and more) with the experiences we have had in the past. In particular, when we are scared, stressed, or otherwise experience danger, our amygdala, of which we have two nerve bundles in the center of our brain, are activated. This activation triggers physical responses. The amygdala supports humans in responding to current situations based on referencing past experiences. Unconscious bias inhibits people from seeing and being in the present moment fully.However, Ross asserts that we can mitigate the impact of unconscious bias through awareness and training. He identifies several methods that he frames under a process called PAUSE. Tools such as these can have a powerful impact on reducing unconscious bias on the choices we make and, therefore, on our lives and the lives of people around us.For thousands of years, human beings have strived towards perfecting our experience in life. This journey begins with how we think about the world. Yet we have not mastered our thinking process. We regularly and consistently make errors in judgment that are influenced by our unconscious bias. Human beings are the only creature with a brain that allows us to think about our thinking. Humans can ask themselves the question, “Why did I do that?” or “Why do I think this way?” Howard argues that this part of our brain function can allow us to reduce our unconscious biases.Our brain has a built-in system for us to conduct double-loop learning. In double-loop learning, we can hold a choice or concept in front of us and examine it with great detail, while at the same time, not experiencing it as our own experience in the present moment. Without double-loop learning, we are going to automatically rush to an answer before we fully understand what is happening in the present moment. Often two or more people will see the same thing or be present for the same experience, only to have different interpretations about what happened. The author cites the Dallenbach Cow photograph as an example of not being able to see what is in the image because of perceptual organization. With double-loop learning, we can ask the right questions and in asking these questions, peel away--like an onion--the layers of questions that lead to a more profound truth about how we interpret the world.We have ten ways that our minds filter the world, and each poses a different set of challenges to how we experience our reality. Each level triggers different types of biases. Implicit bias, for example, is a kind of bias in which a human being assesses something negatively and deliberately based on their past. Diagnosis bias and pattern recognition are other ways that our brain makes sense of a current experience based on a memory we have that is similar.Researchers believe, most of what we frame as bias is unconscious. Slicing bias into various taxonomies while fascinating, still points to one key fact: human beings are unaware of our biases, as well as when and how they happen. Ross cites research that babies as young as three months old start forming the ability to create bias. Ross cites many experiments that show bias in action. He unpacks a well-known video of people tossing a basketball around and a gorilla walking through them without most viewers, including this reader, noticing. Eighty-three percent of Radiologists overlooked pictures of gorillas implanted in x-rays. Errors in this form of interpretation can be dangerous when lives are at stake.Ross discusses how power in our culture is one of the seeds of unconscious bias. The groups that possess more power, the dominant group, create norms that are accepted by the non-dominant group. These norms form guardrails for how we live our lives. These norms are what human beings fall back on to create “normal,” which is used as a baseline to reference our reality and day-to-day behaviors. When we develop norms, its opposite becomes defined as “not normal.” This phenomenon causes human beings to sort people into in and out-groups, which can cause injustice and harm.Seeing a person with purple hair is not expected because the dominant group has dictated normal colors for hair such as brown, black, grey, and blonde. This unexpected experience of seeing purple hair causes us to frame it as ‘not normal.’ This person is then placed into the out-group. Other cultural norms apply interpretations of what a person’s character is based on the color of their hair. “Blondes have more fun” is an example. The author notes that those with more power in the dominant group have less empathy towards others. Those who feel powerful are less oriented towards risk and more towards rewards. Ross says that people who are in the non-dominant groups who achieve dominant statuses like wealth, fame, and power are still treated with bias as if they were fully vested in the non-dominant group. He shares the story of a financially successful African-American man who is frequently stopped by the police in his very upscale neighborhood.There has been a greater awareness of unconscious bias in our culture. The phenomenon, such as individuals being able to film encounters through the invention of mobile phones easily, is helping bring awareness to the impact of those in the dominant power group exerting their power on the less dominant group. It is now common for us to open the “newspaper” and watch firsthand as African-American men are tossed out of a Starbucks because they are black. The author shows how this rising awareness is helping us as a society ask more in-depth questions about the impact of bias on less dominant groups. The increasing awareness regarding the discriminatory treatment of African-American men by some police officers and the uncovering of decades-long sexual harassment by men like Harvey Weinstein have focused our attention on the nature of unconscious bias.Many of us are aligning in new ways to support justice and fairness for the less dominant group. Because of the author and others’ questioning and scientific examination of unconscious bias, we can see that we all have different interpretations of facts, and even our “interpretation of our interpretations are not the same” Ross . The author makes it clear that while I don’t want to have biases, I do. Because the experience of our paradigms is blind to us and becomes a part of our everyday lives, we cannot see outside of it without effort.Currently, our culture in the United States has broken open to see new dimensions of the diversity of thought, opinion, and culture. The #MeToo movement has been a magnifying glass shining a light on our culture’s obfuscation of criminal harm at the hands of people under the influence of unconscious bias. There is growing awareness and courage among those involved to ask themselves reflective questions and take moral and ethical actions.The author explains how we can shift our brains out of an amygdala hijack and mitigate biases in many areas of our lives, including the workplace. He focuses on techniques to reduce bias in talent management by putting systems and processes in place that force people to think more deeply, document more accurately, and otherwise take the reactive brain as much out of the equation as possible.The author created a system he calls PAUSE, which in effect, directs us to take breaks in our actions and examine what we have done to understand our perspective, acknowledge our assumptions, seek different perspectives, and create new options. He cites this as a way to conduct a double learning inquiry by uncovering more profound truths about our intentions, intended outcomes, and possible harms of our decisions and actions.There is much to be disheartened by as we uncover how we cause harm to one another because of unconscious bias. However, there are high hopes for the tools and techniques to make the unconscious conscious. Many of our biases, thankfully, can be mitigated by exposing them to the sunlight of our awareness. We see examples of researchers finding evidence of unconscious bias, sharing the empirical data with those involved, and the bias start to dissolve For example, the fouls that National Basketball Association referees called on players were found to have a bias with white referees calling more fouls on black players and black referees doing the same to white players. Within a few years after the release of this research report, the same scientists conducted the same study and found that the biases had disappeared. Often providing some level of awareness will quickly demonstrate to people the harm their actions are doing, and because of their empathy and desire to do their best, they shift their context and see a new possibility.Awareness is no easy task and requires us to pause and consider that not everything we think to be true is. We can learn to see that bias is a normal part of being human. Having discussions about unconscious bias can reduce feelings of guilt, shame, and blame. Most of the work is accomplished through personal awareness, systemic and organizational change, as well as a group dynamic interventions. The author and many researchers have found that applying these discoveries can reduce everyday bias and provide a path to a more just and safer society.Most of the ideas outlined in Everyday Bias resonates with my values, studies, and experiences I have had in my exploration of my unconscious biases. I used the previous edition of Ross’s book to inform the development of the unconscious bias workshops I created and lead regularly. I share his premise that everyone has biases and that they are a part of the human brain function. I also discuss how we create in and out-groups as well as techniques for relaxing the amygdala and mitigating unconscious bias.However, several of his ideas are inconsistent concerning unconscious bias. For example, Ross recommends that organizations take a position of “zero tolerance.” for behaviors they deem unacceptable. Given the book’s thesis that all observations of behavior are suspect to bias, the idea of having “zero tolerance” for someone’s actions removes the possibility of creating a safe forum to explore their unconscious bias. Instead, zero tolerance creates a bias against those who are accused. Howard accepted my suggestion of using the phrase “measured tolerance” to provide more possibility for nuanced responses to actions that he placed in the “zero tolerance” bucket.On page 80, Ross confuses his argument of a “fluid matrix.” Here he describes placing power and status along a vertical axis and life experiences and narrative on a horizontal axis. However, he does not diagram this concept in the book.On page 46, Ross argues that American’s voted viscerally and not thoughtfully in the 2016 presidential election, which is why President Trump won. He is attempting to demonstrate a study done by Alexander Todorov and Charles Ballew, who showed study participants pictures of candidates running for election. The participants had less than one second to make a choice, and through this method, they picked the actual winner 70 percent of the time. I argue that President Trump won because he earned 77,744 more votes from three states, while Clinton won the popular vote by 65.84 million votes, to Trumps 62.98 million. That is a statistical difference of .0006 percent of the voters who voted for Trump. That strikes me as such a small number as to assert that Trump won the election because he produced a more significant visceral response than Clinton. This small difference could be more likely attributed to luck.Howard’s most significant assertion is that biologically, all humans experience unconscious bias. All biases are created in our brain based on past experiences, which are inconsistent and attached to historical events that are not always reflective of what is happening in the present moment. I believe that knowing unconscious bias is universal and is often not personal, mean spirited, or otherwise endemic to a person’s character is vital to our ability to address unconscious bias effectively. We know that people will not shift their brains to neutral and ask themselves questions to uncover the deeper meaning in their thinking if they believe their character is under attack. Attacks on character create guilt, shame, or otherwise unpleasant emotions and shut down the possibility of exploring one’s unconscious biases.Being open to one’s unconscious bias is not just a gift to the people around us; it is a gift and duty to our wellbeing. Howard makes the argument that we are on an expedition of the mind. These discoveries can bring us great joy, freedom, and unexpected gifts. If we wish to unravel our mysteries, he provides a map and compass so we can find our way home.Four years ago, I was interviewing two experts in diversity and inclusion for my radio show. They were both African American and posed the question to me about what I believed diversity to mean. I told them that it constituted dimensions I could see with my eyes or hear with my ears, such as skin color, gender, physical ability, and the like. When they explained to me that diversity and inclusion encompass bringing people into an organization with diverse thinking, ideas, and thoughts, my awareness was radically expanded and, in an instant, forever changed. I had never considered the multiple ways human beings think and solve problems was a dimension of diversity. This insight expanded my awareness and made an impact on how I led global and national recruiting teams. After that show, I created new talent acquisition processes and training for my recruiters, so they were open to finding and thus hiring people with greater diversity, including more of the aspects of what it means to be human.I have enjoyed learning more about how I and those around me make choices. What I thought was random or, in some cases, a personal attack on me, I now see as being influenced by unconscious bias. When I notice this, a feeling of calm and agency to do something about it comes over me. The most significant impact this book has had on my life is that I was inspired to become a part of the unconscious to conscious bias movement that Howard and thousands of other activists, scientists, researchers, and citizens have taken up — bringing greater justice and equality to all people by providing tools to raise their unconscious bias to their consciousness. Through my teaching over 1,000 people how to recognize and mitigate their unconscious bias, I have become more aware of how I make decisions based on my past experiences.Uncovering unconscious bias has provided me with a new career path that I am finding very rewarding. The basis of the context that I create for my students is that they are not wrong for expressing unconscious bias. I know for myself and communicate to others that having unconscious bias is a natural tendency of the human brain that they can actively work to counteract. This frame has inspired me to commit to building my profession around the field of unconscious bias. I believe that, of all the work I have done, this is the most important. I contrast that with my time as an Emergency Medical Technician in New York City, where I saved lives. This work shifts context, which is closer to the kernel of the human experience.