How Biased Are You?

The question of bias is an interesting one. In previous decades it was believed that bias in human beings was both conscious and intentional. Sociologists believed that all human decisions were conscious ones. They believed that we chose to show distain towards those we considered ‘different.’ However, recent research has proven that in fact, human biases are largely unconscious.

Research into the field of social cognition theory suggests that the bias we demonstrate is, in the most part, unintentional and unconscious. They believe that from birth we mentally categorise people, places and events. Whilst this seems awfully practical it can lead to a skew in judgment later in life that we can’t explain. For example, as human beings we naturally form positive biases towards people who remind us of ourselves, people who look and behave like we do. In turn we also develop bias against those who are different.

Before the research took place and proved that in the majority of cases our bias is unconscious it is easy to see why, using the example above, that sociologists believed bias to be intentional. Experience is usually a marker for negative bias towards a person, situation or event, but evidentially not the only one.

Thanks to further research it is possible to undergo an unconscious bias test to revel to what extent our unconscious mind is determining our behavior and attitude.

One of the leading lights in the testing field is Hogrefe. They offer testing for individuals and business who wish to ascertain unconscious behaviors’ and their impact on behavior. These tests are favoured by businesses who deal in industries where slight unconscious changes in your personality and behavior can be the difference between success and failure. For example if you subconsciously altered your behavior when dealing with individuals who are a different race or gender it may make building relationships with these sectors incredibly difficult.

The tests offered by Hogrefe are called Implicitly and measure reaction time to a number of tasks to determine bias towards disability, age, gender, sexual orientation and ethnic origin. Once completed the score is marked against a set of typical outcomes to show what the implications of an individual’s bias maybe.

If you think your team or future employees could benefit from unconscious bias testing, then contact Hogrefe today. Visit their website or give them a call on 01865 402900.