Conference

Understanding and Reducing Implicit Bias

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Abstract

Contemporary research on racism in cognitive psychology focuses primarily on implicit biases. One has an explicit bias EB if one has EB, one can become aware that one has EB by reflecting on her own thinking, and one voluntarily uses EB to guide thought and action. One has an implicit bias IB if one has IB, one can’t become aware that one has IB by reflecting on her own thinking, and IB automatically guides one’s thought and action. Two robust findings from research on implicit biases: first, many people who explicitly reject any racist ideology have implicit biases against African Americans; second, because of their implicit biases, many people who explicitly reject any racist ideology behave in ways that differentially harm African Americans. Despite the focus on implicit biases within cognitive psychology, popular discussions of race relations rarely consider them, likely because too few people understand how implicit biases work. In this presentation I (i) review recent literature on implicit biases against African Americans, (ii) explain how these biases explain much of the behavior that differentially harms African Americans, and (iii) explore strategies for eliminating these implicit biases and, insofar as they can’t be eliminated, minimizing their impacts.