Most White people in surveys indicate that they have no racial bias, and that they treat everyone equally.1 Hmmmmmm, I wish that were the case, but the thing about implicit bias is that we aren’t conscious of it. We all have biases, but we don’t like to look at them, think about them, or acknowledge them. However, I am here to say it is good for you to do so. Whether you are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Arab, male, female, non-binary, or however you identify, looking at your own implicit bias is how we heal culturally and personally.
Lately, I have been grappling with my implicit bias after taking the Implicit Bias Test (link to take it here)2 in a psychology class. I thought I was so progressive, but I did not score as well as I thought I should on typical male names and typical female names and words associated with career and family. I could not believe it!?! Thinking and reflecting on how one might have prejudice or hold bias is hard and is not really what we think of as “fun self-work,” but I am here to say it is valuable. My initial feelings were to be hard on myself, but then I realized that unconscious beliefs are precisely what that word means, unconscious, and those need to be made conscious to be dealt with.
A little cinematic side note: Have you seen the film Triangle of Sadness? If not, I highly recommend it - at the very least, please watch the opening scene between a young couple at dinner. It is a satire for context, so please stay in there while I describe the scene to you. This couple is at a fancy restaurant, and they are both models. The boyfriend makes less than his girlfriend because, in general, male models do not make as much as female models, which is a fun fact that plays on the traditional inequality between men's and women’s salaries.3 During the dinner, she thanks him for paying their dinner bill. He looks upset. She asks him what the issue is, and he wants to talk about why he always has to pay for the bill. She blows it off. He persists and wants to know why talking about money is so difficult. She tells him it isn’t “sexy” and tries to shut him down. The entire encounter is so well done and escalates perfectly that I cannot do it justice here. My point from this tangent is that we may think we are so progressive, but when we have to talk about something that confronts our implicit biases, we don’t want to. We push it back down, but we don’t have to. If the girlfriend just looked at or acknowledged why she never pays, she could bring them closer, but instead, it causes a rift, and the drama ensues in the triangle of sadness.
Implicit biases are the attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously affect our perceptions and actions involuntarily and without our awareness.4 Everyone is susceptible. Implict biases do not even have to align with our values, but they affect our behavior. If we don’t look at them, analyze them, and understand them, they are controlling our decisions without us even knowing it.
Some of the tools we use in psychology to understand implicit bias are listening to people’s experiences, educating ourselves, reading literature on the topic, and practicing mindfulness. In fact, mindfulness is probably one of the most promising interventions for implicit bias.5 Even brief mindfulness interventions can lead to tangible changes in the implicit discrimination. Sometimes, we have to pause and take a moment to continue the work on ourselves, making the unconscious conscious around prejudices we still hold onto. This is how we can evolve into a more culturally centered and conscious society.
For my AMAZING subscribers, I have some homework and mindfulness exercises just for you. Keep reading below!
P.S. I am always grateful when you click the ❤️ heart, comment, and share or re-stack my posts. This helps me get discovered by others who might benefit from my writing and helps me grow.
❤️ Ways to support my work:
Share my newsletter with friends, family, and colleagues! Click the share button below!
Follow and like my Instagram @my.field.notes
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to My Field Notes to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.