The Psychology of Unconscious Bias

A lot of the posts on this blog are based off of articles on other social justice websites. This week, i decided it was time for a change. I searched through my favorite websites, Psychology Today, for some insight on unconscious bias and what I found was an article that both shocked and impressed me.

Check it out here.  

Dr. Mikhail Lyubansky expands on some issues outlined in a 2012 W.K Kellogg Foundation panel on "Unconscious Bias and Race." The issue is introduced with the horrifying study that revealed that Doctors actually treat patients different based on the color of their skin. They give them less pain medication, they're more reluctant to do strenuous procedures on them, and more likely to perform less desirable solutions like lower -body amputations for diabetics.

With data like this, both Lyubansky and panelists argue, it is impossible to deny that racial bias exists, and yet so few are willing to admit that unconscious bias is an issue, that racism is just a left-wing urban legend. 

Psychologists argue that this bias is nothing to be ashamed of. Our brains naturally categorize everyday items into groups to make more sense of them, and the very same applies when it comes to people. But just because it's normal, doesn't mean it's okay. The longer the biases go unknown, the more harmful they can be, because the deeper they become ingrained into one's logic. 

My favorite point was the following:

“There are three types of not knowing,”[John Powell, director of the Haas Center for Diversity and Inclusion and Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion at the University of California Berkeley] explained: 1. What we can’t know, like how many neurons are firing at any given moment, 2. What we don’t care to know, like the color of the car we pass at a particular intersection, and 3. What we don’t want to know.  When we talk about racism, we usually talk about #2 and #3, and those are important conversations to be having.  We all need to care. We all need to want to know. But #1 is important as well."

The article very prophetically describes a series of repercussions for unchecked bias that we are seeing here today. It's a pretty old piece, but overall, I think it's a good read because it goes over a lot of points that should made included into the conversation of unconscious bias, many of which weren't even mentioned in this blog post.

So the real question is, do you disagree? What stuck out to you?