Question
What is implicit bias?
Answer
Implicit bias is the automatic and unconscious stereotypes that drive people to behave and make decisions in certain ways. It is based on learned associations between various qualities and social characteristics and categories, such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, and appearance. It encompasses both favorable and unfavorable assessments. Sometimes our implicit bias is that we think certain cultures or the way certain people look or the way certain people talk makes them something they might not be. For example, my husband is British and I always thought that people with British accents were smarter than anybody else. It does not always have to be negative.
It is activated involuntarily and without an individual's awareness or intentional control. We need to become more aware. Implicit bias develops at a very early age through exposure to direct and indirect messages. Many people consider themselves non-judgmental, but as an educator, we see children's play, their behavior, whether aggressive or compliant, their initiative, and even their ability as a result of our own implicit bias. In addition to early life experiences, the media and news programming are often-cited origins of implicit associations.
Children have the right to grow up in environments where differences are expected and respected and this does not mean that you are not seeing differences. It means understanding and appreciating them.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Opening the Culture Door: Valuing Diversity, presented by Barbara Kaiser, MA.
