Implicit Bias and You. And Me. And Everyone..

[Aroura]

Did you know that everyone is biased?
That is not to say that everyone is outwardly racist, or sexist, or that all of humanity are a bunch of bigots.  But all of us carry what are called Implicit Biases.  They might be about race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc, and it is highly likely that we all have some level of implicit bias about most, if not all, of these things.  They are picked up starting from infancy and continue through our adult lives, from our families, friends, teachers, co-workers and bosses, television, radio, social media, and society in general. 

I have been studying this effect after doing some research, and participating in a series of Harvard tests, which can be found here:

Project Implicit

(These tests are just fascinating, and very well designed.  I suggest you try one out! You can register, or just go anon.)

After taking one of the tests, I was not terribly surprised to discover I have an association between female and family, and males and careers.  What I was surprised to learn was how strong this implicit bias was in me.  I am a homemaker now, but I did attend college, and earned my associates degree in a tech field, and worked in said field for a little over a decade.  So why do I have this STRONG implicit bias that woman are for families and men are for careers?  It isn't obvious if you look at my life, schooling, and work history (or my voting history), but it was apparent when this test looked at my thinking patterns and associations.

Perhaps because I was raised with a stay at home mom, and a dad who worked double shifts, in a very traditional Catholic household, with multiple female family role models (my gran lived with us and was my secondary care giver more than my father was). Perhaps it is the reinforcement of these ideas in media, and even in games.  Is it in my genes?  I don't know!  But I've been searching to find out.

First, what is Implicit Bias?

Unlike explicit bias (which reflects the attitudes or beliefs that one endorses at a conscious level), implicit bias is the bias in judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes (e.g., implicit attitudes and implicit stereotypes) that often operate at a level below conscious awareness.....

This article:
The Disturbing Science of Implicit Bias
Has been very informative.

“These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. Rather, implicit biases are not accessible through introspection.”

Basically, most of us go along blissfully unaware that we are carrying around all of this social baggage. We pick it up when teachers tell the boys to put the chairs up (strength) and the girls to pick up the litter (housework).  Or when a TV show has a minority commit the crimes and white police officers solve them.  No one explicitly said boys are stronger, or minorities commit more crimes, instead we are left to infer these things.  And it turns out, learning by inference is hardcore, deep learning.  Humans internalize it more than we internalize explicit learning.

Others might see the results of this implicit, intuitive learning in our actions or statements, though it is likely to be more subtle and less straightforward than those who have an explicit bias.  All the same, implicit bias affects how we see and interact with the world.

As studies about implicit bias have shown, these classifications contribute to subconscious associations that affect how we think about people who are different from us, and even how we think about ourselves. And these categorizations are not value-free.


“Children appear to act as though boys have higher status,” writeGender Development authors Judith E. Owen Blakemore, Sheri A. Berenbaum, and Lynn S. Liben, citing research about gender and peer groups. Researchers found that even in preschool, girls are less able to get boys to respond to their requests than boys are to influence others. And in elementary school, boys are less willing to allow girls into their peer groups than girls are to allow boys into theirs—trends that “are consistent with boys having a higher status than girls, even as children.”
Later in life, these early biases very much endure. A review of more than 2.5 million Implicit Association (IAT) scores between 2000 and 2006, for instance, revealed that people implicitly associate men with science and career, and women with liberal arts and family.

“Because these biases are activated on an unconscious level, it’s not a matter of individuals knowingly acting in discriminatory ways,” the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, based at Ohio State University, notes in a discussion guide appended to its 2014 report on scientific findings on implicit bias. “Implicit bias research tells us that you don’t have to have negative intent in order to have discriminatory outcomes. That’s a pretty huge statement, if you think about it.”

We may occasionally like to think we live in a “post-gender” world, but biases affect how others think of women—and, perhaps most disturbingly, how girls and women think of themselves. And this, in turn, can hinder equality.

But this isn't just about gender, it's about all sorts of things.

 I have a friend who is of mixed Asian ancestry, a girl I went to school with and have known since we were 5. It's her that got me interested in this initially, because she pointed out something I said to her that she said was not overtly racist, but implicitly bias.  I was offended as hell.  "Wtf", I thought, "I've been your friend almost your whole life, how can you say that?" I thought.

But it turns out, she was correct.  I hold a number of implicit biases about race.  Well fuck me. : 
She's not mad about it, because she knows she also holds implicit biases, as we all do. She was just pointing this one out, because without some help, they are very difficult to self correct.

So then, if it isn't something obvious to me, and I cannot see it in myself through introspection, how can I change it?  Do I need to change it? If someone calls me out on acting upon what appears to them to be an implicit bias, should I blindly defend myself, or take a deeper look at myself instead? 

Compounding all this is the fact that, it turns out, it’s much harder to forget incorrect information that you’ve inferred yourself, based on hints and clues and implicit messages, than it is to forget incorrect information you’ve explicitly been told, according to a recent study conducted by Kent State University researchers Patrick Rich and Maria Zaragoza. “Misinformation that is ‘merely’ implied,” they write, “is more difficult to eradicate than misinformation that is stated explicitly.”

Well shit, so not only is it hard to see in ourselves than explicit bias, once pointed out, it turns out its harder to correct!
So what can I do?

One way we can offload those sticky implicit assumptions, then, is by bringing them out in the open and making them explicit, especially if we can offer alternative explanations, the researchers say.

Other strategies cited in the study include stereotype replacement, in which we recognize that a response is stereotypical and replace it with a non-stereotypical response, and perspective taking, meaning that we imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes. In the context of gender bias, the latter strategy is particularly relevant, and important, for parents of boys. It’s important to talk about this with all our children—and not just once either. The ongoing dialogues that can pull apart the stereotypes forming the scaffolding of implicit bias must not be the province solely of any group being burned by those stereotypes.

We all think we know ourselves (And of course, we do!), but looking inward and being ready to accept that sometimes we don't know ourselves half as well as we think, and that there is always something to learn, both inside and out, can be the most enlightening thing, and can help us be better people, and create better societies.

So, if you ever see me saying or doing something you think is bias, CALL ME OUT on it.  It is not mean, or cruel, or an attack (if worded nicely, I mean, don't be a jerk), it is constructive criticism, and I will take it as such.  And I hope this thread sparks some discussion that helps others with this very complicated and difficult subject as well.  Please, tell me what you think.

[Arkilogue]

I wonder if 2.5 billions years of the sexual evolution/specialization of DNA itself has anything to do with our implicit biases?

Is "implicit bias" even considerable when human males actually are biologically physically stronger than females?
It may be an implicate bias inherent in the objective context we find ourselves in and as.

[Aegon]

I took the race one.

"Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for White people over Black people."

I mean, I grew up in a town that was (literally) 98.9% white, this doesn't surprise me.

[Catholic_Lady]

Interesting post, Aroura.

[The Grand Nudger]

LOL.....I -tried- to take the weight bias test, but figured out the game so quickly it was too tedious to complete.

Associative conditioning through motor impulse control, yawn. "Lock and load your seven round magazines, and watch, your lanes." 17 targets will be paper squares, two silhouettes of a man, and one a silhouette of a woman. 100% gets you a shiny medal, failure brings scorn.

Second the above though, interesting post.

(we used to lay bets on the range at who and how many people would hit 19/20, we'd rigged the time on the sils to be half the squares, and the female to half the male with one square commensurate with the female sil)

[Arkilogue]

More difficult questions:

Is there any implicate order to the difference/specialization in human "races"?

Does development in different environments evolve/specialize the races differently?

For example: Is there any truth at all to the stereotype that those of African decent are genetically predisposed to being more physically adept do to a harsh and physically demanding environment?

Does appreciating these potential differences and specializations make me a racist?

[Aroura]

I wonder if 2.5 billions years of the sexual evolution/specialization of DNA itself has anything to do with our implicit biases?

Is "implicit bias" even considerable when human males actually are biologically physically stronger than females?
It may be an implicate bias inherent in the objective context we find ourselves in and as.

Yes,, of course our genetics affects our biases.  10,000 years ago, males protected the females because they were necessary, so they could bear young and nurse and propogate the species.  Males were more expendable (only need a few to impregnate multiple females and have enough genetic diversity) so they were sent out into more danger, hunting and fighting.
Over time society began creating a narrative, females became seen as fragile and weak (as opposed to valuable), and men as strong (as opposed to expendable).

Males are stronger than females is a perfect example of EXPLICIT bias, though.  Human males are, indeed, usually stronger than females.  No denying it.

The implicit bias that often goes along with it is that therefore females are weak.  But that isn't true.  Human females can be perfectly physical strong. Males = strong does NOT mean females = weak, yet we often pass on this implicit bias.  We TEACH it implicitly, for instance, in a play where the house is on fire, and the man saves everyone, including the woman (who was perfectly physical able of saving herself in reality, but we've just shown that she needs a man to do it).

Another example of accompanying implicit bias would be that human males are MENTALLY stronger because they are physically stronger. This is a common implicit bias we see.  Bad news arrives, and the man takes it stoically, while the woman faints.  This isn't a reflection of reality, but something we do in story telling that then creates its own reality.  THAT is how implicit biases are formed.

Also, do you feel about genetics and racial bias?  Are the "races" different, and is that explicit or implicit?  Are we only racist because of tribalism?

[Catholic_Lady]

I'm gonna take the test when I get a chance

[Aroura]

More difficult questions:

Is there any implicate order to the difference/specialization in human "races"?

Does development in different environments evolve/specialize the races differently?

For example: Is there any truth at all to the stereotype that those of African decent are genetically predisposed to being more physically adept do to a harsh and physically demanding environment?

Does appreciating these potential differences and specializations make me a racist?

I think you have entirely missed the point of the word "implicit".

[Arkilogue]

I wonder if 2.5 billions years of the sexual evolution/specialization of DNA itself has anything to do with our implicit biases?

Is "implicit bias" even considerable when human males actually are biologically physically stronger than females?
It may be an implicate bias inherent in the objective context we find ourselves in and as.

Yes,, of course our genetics affects our biases.  10,000 years ago, males protected the females because they were necessary, so they could bear young and nurse and propogate the species.  Males were more expendable (only need a few to empregnate multiple females and have enough genetic diversity) so they were sent out into more danger, hunting and fighting.
Over time society began creating a narrative, females became seen as fragile and weak (as opposed to valuable), and men as strong (as opposed to expendable).

Males are stronger than females is a perfect example of EXPLICIT bias, though.  Human males are, indeed, usually stronger than females.  No denying it.

The implicit bias that often goes along with it is that therefore females are weak.  But that isn't true.  Human females can be perfectly physical strong. Males = strong does NOT mean females = weak, yet we often pass on this implicit bias.  We TEACH it implicitly, for instance, in a play where the house is on fire, and the man saves everyone, including the woman (who was perfectly physical able of saving herself in reality, but we've just shown that she needs a man to do it).

Another example of accompanying implicit bias would be that human males are MENTALLY stronger because they are physically stronger. This is a common implicit bias we see.  Bad news arrives, and the man takes it stoically, while the woman faints.  This isn't a reflection of reality, but something we do in story telling that then creates its own reality.  THAT is how implicit biases are formed.

Also, do you feel about genetics and racial bias?  Are the "races" different, and is that explicit or implicit?  Are we only racist because of tribalism?

Great post, thank you for the elucidation!

I think it goes much deeper than human genetics. (birds) https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...ds-more-c/ For example, females of species that are exposed to predators while incubating tend to have dull colors, although both sexes may be brightly colored in species that nest in tree hollows because the females are less visible to predators.
---
The male is the expendable party. There are also no all male species while there many all female species.

And sacrifice of the male still fairly evident in human society both politically and militarily.

As far a racial bias is concerned, there of course is natural explicit tribalism, that's just how we grew up over hundred's of thousands of years. But it becomes adverse when we project our own preconceived/emotional bias on others rather than receive what biases they might be demonstrating. Not to judge them for it yet to accurately assess the information bias the other is projecting in order to safely navigate around them.

For example: As a white guy, if some black guy is yelling at me that "all white people are the devil!" I'm not going to argue with them, I'm going to avoid them. They may have had many experiences of blatant racism against them and feel fully subjectively justified in their implicit bias. Not much I can do in the situation other than not take it personally, nor judge the black man as racist and move on.

We each have many roots of influences in the soil of the past, hidden just under the present surface of time and no one can see them all, even/especially ourselves. Even so, with cultivation and pruning we can all bear good fruits and not be poisonous to each other.