Examine Dimensions Assignment

Recognize Unconscious Bias

In this module, you will examine unconscious bias and identify the ways that it affects how people perceive, evaluate, and react to others. You will also explore related concepts, including microaggressions and microaffirmations. You will hear from Professor Nishii about what the research shows us regarding the ways unconscious bias affects individual and organizational effectiveness. Finally, you will complete projects in which you identify unconscious bias, and you will assess your organization through “bias glasses,” using your newfound awareness to identify evidence of unconscious bias that you might not have recognized before.

What Is Unconscious Bias?

Most large companies, at least in the US, have been working to increase diversity, especially in senior leadership, for quite a while now. And more and more are feeling some level of frustration about the fact that they have relatively little diversity in senior leadership to show for all their effort. The research on diversity initiatives that suggests that one of the primary explanations for the continuing lack of full integration of employees representing diverse backgrounds has to do with the persistence of unconscious bias. It happens at a level below our level of awareness. In this video, Professor Nishii examines what unconscious bias is and how it impacts the way people both see and interact with others.

Video Transcript:

So I imagine that a number of you have probably heard the term unconscious bias, as more and more people are talking about it, both in organizations and also within the media. But to try to get a sense for whether non-psychologists understand what unconscious bias is, I asked my husband if he knew what it was. And he joked in the beginning. He said it's the bias you feel against students that fall asleep in your class. And then he said, well did I tell you this story the other day about my experience at the supermarket? Of course, I'm thinking, wait a minute, we're not done talking about unconscious bias but I let him go ahead and tell the story. And he said that he was checking out and there was this really energetic, engaging, young African-American cashier who was checking him out at the supermarket. And he said to my husband do you work at Cornell? To which my husband said yes, in fact I do. And the cashier said I can always tell the Cornell people. And my husband then said well, it's because I'm Asian. And isn't that why, why else would I live in Ithaca? And so they joked about it a little bit, and then the cashier said you know what I wish our races interacted more. I feel like our groups are sometimes kind of more segregated or separated than they need to be, as if there's this assumption that our groups don't have a whole lot in common. So as it turns out that by telling me this story, he was actually demonstrating that he knew what unconscious bias was, and that it refers to the attributes that we really quickly assign to people based on their social categories. 

And so the cashier had a mental model so to speak of what a person who works at Cornell is like. And so he typed, in a spilt second he typed my husband as somebody who works at Cornell. And the cashier also said that he's concerned about the two different groups not mixing as much as he would like. And this too is related to unconscious bias in that it has to do with the fact that both sides have certain assumptions about what members of the other group are probably like, and that they are dissimilar. So you see unconscious bias impacts how we see people and, as a result, also how we interact with people. But what's really important to understand is that we all have- everyone has- unconscious biases. And having an unconscious bias does not make somebody a bad person. The reason we all have unconscious biases is because they result from the way that our brain is structured. They represent neural connections within our brains. So scientists estimate that we're exposed to as many as 11 million pieces of information at any time. But our brains can only consciously process about 40 bits of information. That means our brains can only consciously process Point zero, zero, zero, zero, one percent of the information coming in. So, what does that mean? That means that our brains evolved to help us survive by automatically filtering information that seems familiar. Using, kind of, preexisting knowledge structures in our brain, or short cuts that are related to those knowledge structures about what or who is likeable, that we can feel safe around, is valuable, right, or competent. That these shortcuts mean that we don't have to keep figuring that out every time we interact with a person, a thing or an event. And the problem, though, is that our brains have become so good at doing this, they're so efficient at interpreting this incoming information, and it happens so quickly, and it happens below our level of conscious awareness, that we believe that what we see is objective, and we rarely realize that what we see has been impacted by the way that our brains have interpreted that incoming information for us using those shortcuts. So the importance of attending to unconscious bias has emerged at the forefront of a lot of cutting edge, diversity, and inclusion practices, based on the recognition that the effectiveness of even the best HR and diversity practices can be undermined by unconscious bias. And that, left unchecked, unconscious bias represents a really significant obstacle to inclusion within organizations.

Explore How Unconscious Bias Affects Us

In this video, Professor Nishii discusses how unconscious biases are formed and how they affect our expectations and perceptions of other people, and perhaps most importantly, how unconscious bias affects the ways we interact with each other within the workplace.

Video Transcript:

Okay. So I'd like to give you a general overview of how unconscious bias works, but first, a little bit on how unconscious biases form. So they form through early socialization and everyday exposure to cues in our environment. So for example, parents and teachers are an important source of information about how certain things are, or how certain types of people may be. But also the media and advertising are important sources of information. It turns out that these unconscious biases are already pretty well formed for a lot of categories among children who are quite young. I'll give you a couple examples. So, there's this study of over 1,000 elementary school students who were asked to describe what it would be like if they had been born a member of the opposite sex, and the majority of girls said that life would be better. That they would have better jobs, they would have more opportunities, and they would get more respect from other people. Elementary school students already had expectations about what it would be like as a woman or man in their lives. And about 95% of the boys said that there would be no advantage to being a girl. Pretty clear-set ideas. So the way the unconscious bias works, when we initially see somebody we categorize them, their cues help us to sort people into categories. Once someone is put into a category, then all the traits and characteristics and attributes we have as part of that category get assigned to the person. And we assume that that person represents all of these attributes and traits that are part of the category, and so it influences what we expect to see about that person. And in fact, can override objective facts about the person. We tend to notice information that confirms our expectations and our brains tend to discount information that dis-confirms our expectations. And these ideas that we have about what somebody is likely to be like then influences, and these are sometimes distorted perceptions, right? These then influence in how we interact with the person and can actually result in self-fulfilling prophecies. So I'll give an example, a positive one, and I'll give you a negative one. So, if there is a person whom about you have positive assumptions, that is that you think you're going to like the person and you can assume to experience some level of psychological safety around that person, the way in which you approach that person, probably in a warm way, is likely to then beget the kind of warm response that confirms your original assumption, that you're going to have a positive interaction with this person. But there can also be negative self-fulfilling prophecies, so for example, if a woman in a workgroup is assumed to be less-competent than the men in the workgroup, perhaps given the work that they do, the kind of gender-type of the work, then she's more likely to be talked over by men, and she may have a number of other kinds of negative experiences for example where she feels somewhat passed over for different assignments and responsibilities because of the assumptions that people are making about her relative lack of competence and these negative experiences can then lead her to withdraw and maybe not contribute as much in the meetings that they have as a team because she doesn't want to be talked over anymore, or because she feels misunderstood. And then that just confirms the original expectation that this woman has less to contribute to the group. So unconscious biases really can help, they shape what ends up happening when people interact with each other based on these assumptions that they have of different groups.

Microaggressions

The term  microaggressions refers to subtle acts that show dominance; specifically, when members of a higher-status group behave in small ways, perhaps obliviously, such that they effectively exert or reinforce dominance over members of a lower-status group. In this video, Professor Nishii introduces the term  microaggressions and examines the ways in which such acts manifest within the workplace, often with unintended negative consequences.

 Video Transcript:

So we've been talking about how unconscious bias influences the way that we perceive other people. Now I want to shift gears a little bit, and focus on how unconscious biases can influence the way that we behave towards others or interact with others. Perhaps some of you have heard this term called microaggressions. This refers to the subtle differences, the subtle ways in which we interact with members of one group that might be different from the way we interact with members of another group and that that difference is quite telling. So there are two key types of microaggressions that I want to tell you about. So, one is that women and members of other kind of lower status groups, are more likely to be interrupted while they're talking. And they're more likely to be talked over. Right? Other people finishing their sentences. Not having an opportunity to finish what they want to say. And this is actually quite apparent even among young children. You see that boys will interrupt girls much, much more than is true the other way around. The other type of microaggression that we see quite a bit is that women and members of other lower status groups are less likely to get credit for their ideas. And the other people are less likely to kind of pick up on their suggestions, kind of take up those suggestions, and then give them credit for it. And I saw this recently in a meeting with very kind of high-level executives, where a woman made a suggestion, and you know in a meeting then somebody else then provides another idea or suggestion, and about three ideas later. That woman's idea was then suggested by a man, and all of a sudden it was this great idea and it was a topic of conversation. And if you tell this kind of story you'll see that women will be nodding, like, "oh yeah, I've seen that happen, that happens". And it's important to think about the implications of that in terms of, how it confirms who has competence. Who has leadership potential, and who does not.

Microaffirmations, on the other hand, have been described as the antidote to microaggressions. They are small, brief acts that affirm other people's competence and value; they serve to acknowledge people and to counteract some of the negative consequences of microaggressions. Examples of microaffirmations could include nodding your head in response to what someone is saying, backing someone up publicly when they offer an opinion or suggestion, or giving someone your complete attention while they are speaking.

Identifying Unconscious Bias

See document - Identifying Unconscious Bias

Research shows that it’s the people with privilege who tend to do more of the talking and interrupting. Why is this important?

It's important because of self-fulfilling prophecies.

The privileged behavior reinforces the very biases that are at the root of these behaviors. When some categories of people are consistently being talked over, they have fewer opportunities to demonstrate competence. The bias becomes internalized: the person who gets talked over all the time stops contributing and feels marginalized, resentful, and not valued. The person who is socialized to hold back contributions then ends up not contributing as much and is passed up for promotions.

You can use the Identifying Unconscious Bias tool to help you take notes of group behavior and to expand your awareness of the manifestations of privilege. Through careful observation, you will identify instances when unconscious bias may be at play. It will also help you look for evidence of artifacts that might be reinforcing unconscious bias, such as the use of male pronouns when describing desired employee behaviors, or the homogeneity inherent in images of former and/or current organizational leaders.

Using this tool, you will identify behaviors associated with privilege, such as:

· Talking first and talking over others

· Taking credit for ideas

· Failing to take other people's ideas seriously

· Making an assumption that you will speak for the group

· Making an assumption that you will have greater influence over group decisions or assuming your opinion counts more

· Correcting others or presuming to articulate their ideas for them

How Unconscious Bias Leads to Different Evaluation of Equivalent Behavior

So far, you have examined how unconscious biases form and how they affect our perceptions of (and interactions with) other people. In this video, Professor Nishii examines the ways in which our unconscious biases put people of lower status groups at a disadvantage: for example, we have stereotypes about which groups of people are the right fit for certain jobs. People will hold onto their unconscious biases even when the evidence disagrees, as Professor Nishii explains.

Video Transcript:

I'd like to talk a little bit about one of the key ways in which unconscious bias can disadvantage women and members of other minority groups within organizations. And this has to do with how it relates to assumptions about competence and leadership potential. Some people refer to this issue as role congruence or incongruence depending on what group you belong to. So the idea is that we have stereotypes about jobs. What certain jobs are like and the kinds of traits and attributes that are required to be successful on the job. And when that stereotype of the job overlaps with the attributes that are part of a stereotype about a group of people, then people who belong to that group are assumed to fit the job quite well. The problem is that women and members of other historically marginalized groups often suffer from role incongruence, that is, the types of characteristics that are assumed to be necessary to be a leader, in particular, don't overlap with the attributes that are often associated with women and members of these other groups. And so as a result, they're less likely to be seen as competent and less likely to be seen as having leadership potential which then also means that organizations are less likely to hire and promote and invest in the careers of women and members of other minority groups. So let me give you a few different examples. There's a lot of research on this. And basically what you'll see from this research is that this notion of success and competence is scrutinized a lot more carefully for women and members of minority groups. In a way, the bar is set higher in order to dispel any doubt about whether or not the person actually is fit for a particular role. So there are a lot of things that you can do with experimental research. So for example, there are a lot of studies that have been done where the exact same resume is sent out to be evaluated. And just a few cues on the resume are changed, so that it's obvious to the evaluator whether or not the applicant is male or female, white or non-white, likely to be a mother versus not have children and what the research shows pretty clearly is that women compared to men and non-whites compared to whites and mothers compared to non-mothers are less likely to be hired, they're offered lower salaries, and they're seen as having less promotion potential. And in fact another, related study showed that if you have a white-sounding name, you're 50% more likely to get a call for an interview. There are other studies that show similar things. A really well known one has to do with orchestras, that historically were primarily dominated by men. And if you ask conductors why are there so many more men than women on orchestras, they would say, well men are just better at music. So then they decided to try blind auditions where people would audition behind a screen so that the people evaluating them couldn't tell if they were men or women, and what do you think happened? Indeed, the chances of a woman being hired onto the orchestra increased by over 30%. And so when you take away the role of the bias, we ended up with very different outcomes. And this is true. These trends are also true within academia unfortunately. So we see that in order for reviewers to equally rate women and men in terms of excellence, women need roughly 20 more journal publications than men. And to be considered for endowed chair positions which are really prestigious positions, often women need to have almost double the number of publications as men to prove that they are worthy of that position. I recently collected some data that I think is also noteworthy that shows that women are much less likely to be placed in stretch assignments. We know that from other research that stretch assignments are critical for accelerating your advancement from within an organization. The very notion of a stretch assignment is that you're doing things you haven't done before so it stretches you, so you learn faster. But it also involves risk because you're putting somebody in a position, in a role that they have not yet done before. And so because of assumptions, better assumptions of competence for men, men tend to be placed in these stretch assignments more than women, and that helps to accelerate their careers and they end up with different trajectories than is the case for women. So, overall, what this research shows is that the success of women and members of other minority groups really is scrutinized a lot more carefully than is true for members of the dominant majority group.

How Unconscious Bias Influences the Way that People Interact

In this video, Professor Nishii explains what the research says about how unconscious bias influences how people interact. For example, the same behavior gets evaluated differently depending on who engages in it.

Video Transcript:

So another way in which unconscious bias impacts people's outcomes at work is that they're associated with assumptions about how members of a social group ought to be and these norms for how people should behave influence how others react to those behaviors that they see. The very same behavior gets evaluated differently based on who engages in it. So let me give you some research-based examples. So, men, who speak up more than their peers and offer, ideas and suggestions for how current practices can be changed or improved, are rewarded with a 10% increase in their ratings of competence. Whereas women who do that, who speak up more than their peers, tend to be punished with approximately 14% lower ratings because doing that is counter-normative for women whereas it's expected of men to be assertive in this way. Also, we see from research that success is associated with being liked for men, whereas for women, success is associated with not being liked. This is what some people refer to as a double bind. So what this means is that women who engage in the equivalent leadership behaviors as men, tend to elicit a rather strong negative reaction in other people. So often they're disliked, seen as cold or maybe pushy, or aggressive, when the same behaviors don't elicit the same kind of negative reaction if a man does them. So there's this famous case where a woman named Ann Hopkins was turned down for a partner in her firm, despite having worked more hours than her peers and having brought in more than $25 million. Because her evaluators thought that she overcompensated for being a woman, and needed a course at charm school. That is, she wasn't feminine enough, that this success was counter normative. Another way in which equivalent behavior gets evaluated differently is that success for men is attributed to ability whereas failure tends to be attributed to situational factors, right? Unfortunate things that happen. While success for women is attributed to the things like luck and other situational factors, whereas failure is attributed to a lack of ability. And this difference is really significant since ability and confidence are obviously expected to be more enduring and reliable than the lucky existence of facilitating factors within the environment. So men end up getting more of the benefit of the doubt. Finally, another robust effect that we see in the research is that communal behaviors, which are expected of women are not expected as much of men. What this means is that when women engage in helping behaviors, helping coworkers, or service activities like volunteering and participating in task forces, for example, within an organization, they receive no extra points for doing that because it's expected of them, but are viewed negatively if they say no. However the research shows that men tend to gain points by engaging in those same kinds of communal activities and are not penalized if they say no.

Recognize Unconscious Bias

In this module, you examined unconscious bias and identified the ways it affects how people perceive, evaluate, and react to others. You also explored related concepts, including microaggressions and microaffirmations. You heard from Professor Nishii about what the research shows us regarding the ways unconscious bias affects individual and organizational effectiveness. Finally, you completed a project in which you identified unconscious bias, and you assessed your organization through “bias glasses,” using your newfound awareness to identify evidence of unconscious bias you might not have recognized before.