Living in Diversity

Living in Diversity

We hope that you had the opportunity to read and contemplate the scenario that was provided in the e-news last week. To promote the ongoing dialog about diversity in our department, we will provide our perspectives on these scenarios in the form of additional questions and information.

We intentionally left details out of the description of this scenario so that you could fill them in. Often, when we encounter a new situation, we use heuristics as a tool to construct the bits of information that aren't readily available. But these mental shortcuts can be subject to implicit bias. 

Answer the following questions about your reactions when you read the scenario involving Stan and John last week:

Did you make assumptions about what race each member of the couple was? Why?
Did you make assumptions about the race of the couple that approached John? Why?

Did you make assumptions about whether or not this couple was heterosexual? Why?
Did you imagine that John was the same race as the couple that approached him? Why?

What is Implicit Bias?

Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Implicit biases are pervasive. Everyone possesses them, even people committed to impartiality. Implicit biases are malleable. Our brains are incredibly complex, and the implicit associations that we have formed can be gradually unlearned through a variety of debiasing techniques.

stephs