What is subconscious bias? How do our actions reflect prejudices that are either subconscious or unconscious? Can the Harvard unconscious bias test tell us the biases our conscious minds refuse to acknowledge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subconscious bias is a prejudice we’re unaware of, and the Harvard unconscious bias test, officially known as the Implicit Association Test, is a tool used to understand how unconscious associations affect our beliefs and behavior. Learn how subconscious bias affects our everyday actions and how the Harvard unconscious bias test can help you identify your unacknowledged prejudices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In order to recognize the power of the unconscious mind\u2019s thin-slicing<\/a> (unconscious decision making<\/a>), we need to accept both its light and dark sides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we look at the Harvard unconscious bias test, let’s explore how these unconscious prejudices arise and what we can do to mitigate subconscious bias. Thin-slicing doesn\u2019t always serve us. Sometimes, we make superficial snap judgments. <\/strong>This leads to subconscious bias. Usually, thin-slicing helps us get below the surface details of a situation to find deep patterns. But stress, time pressures, and ingrained associations can interrupt this deep dive, leaving us with a snap judgment made on irrelevant surface details. For example, before he became the 29th president of the United States, Warren Harding<\/a> had an undistinguished political career. He wasn\u2019t particularly smart, rarely took a stance on (or interest in) political issues, gave vague speeches, and spent much of his time drinking and womanizing. Still, Harding climbed the political ranks and became president. He\u2019s widely regarded as one of the worst presidents in history. How did he get the position in the first place? He looked <\/em>like a president. His distinguished appearance and deep, commanding voice won voters over. They unconsciously believed good-looking people make competent leaders. Harding\u2019s handsomeness triggered associations so powerful they overrode voters\u2019 ability to look below the surface, at his qualifications (or lack thereof). <\/strong>These associations are, by their nature, irrational. This is a consequence of subconscious bias. Sometimes, our snap judgments aren\u2019t only the product but the root<\/em> of prejudice and discrimination. <\/strong>Our attitudes about race<\/a> and gender<\/a>, for instance, operate on two levels. We can\u2019t choose our unconscious attitudes. <\/strong>We may not even be aware of them. Our experiences and schooling, the lessons we were taught as children, and the media all form our unconscious attitudes and subconscious biases. These attitudes may differ dramatically from our conscious ones. For example, we would never say that we believe tall people make better leaders than short people. But the numbers indicate that being short is as much of a stumbling block to corporate success as being a woman or a minority.<\/strong> We believe tall people make good leaders, even if we don\u2019t know we believe it. Consider these statistics: We have an unconscious association between leadership and tallness and a subconscious bias toward tall people. We make snap judgments about our leaders based on their height. That stereotype is so strong that it overrides other qualities or considerations. Many psychologists use the Implicit Association Test, also known as the Harvard unconscious bias test, as a tool in their attempts to understand how unconscious associations affect our beliefs and behavior. (You can find the IAT online at www.implicit.harvard.edu<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in learning more about your own unconscious associations and subconscious bias.) Statistics from the administration of the Harvard unconscious bias test demonstrate that, regardless of our stated beliefs, most of us pair the concept of \u201cmale\u201d with the concept of \u201ccareer,\u201d and pair \u201cfemale\u201d with \u201cfamily.\u201d When the Harvard unconscious bias test jumbles them, our reaction times are slower. For example, when given two categories\u2014Male\/Career and Female\/Family\u2014we can sort words like \u201claundry,\u201d \u201centrepreneur,\u201d \u201cmerchant,\u201d and \u201csiblings\u201d pretty quickly. But change the categories to Male\/Family and Female\/Career, and the conscious mind<\/a> has to course correct for the unconscious mind<\/a>, which still yokes \u201cmale\u201d with \u201ccareer\u201d and \u201cfemale\u201d with \u201cfamily.\u201d This slows down our reaction times. It also demonstrates subconscious bias. Although we may not like it or consciously agree with it, most of us have a moderate or strong \u201cautomatic male association\u201d when it comes to the workforce.<\/strong> In other words, we have a subconscious bias toward males in the workplace. Regardless of their stated beliefs, more than 80% of people who take the Harvard unconscious bias test have \u201cpro-white associations.\u201d<\/strong> In other words, it takes slightly longer for most people to put words like \u201cglorious\u201d and \u201cwonderful\u201d in the \u201cAfrican American\u201d category than to put words like \u201churt\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d in the same category. This doesn\u2019t just apply to test-takers who aren\u2019t African American\u201450% of more than 50,000 African Americans tested have pro-white associations.<\/strong> In the U.S., where we\u2019re still bombarded by messages implicitly linking \u201cwhite\u201d with \u201cgood,\u201d it\u2019s hard to develop unconscious attitudes about race that match our conscious ones. This leads to a subconscious bias toward whites. The implications of this mismatch are unsettling. When we act automatically, we depend on our implicit attitudes. Studies show that if you have strong pro-white associations, you\u2019ll act differently around someone who\u2019s Black. You probably won\u2019t even be aware that you\u2019re behaving differently. The cues will be subtle: Subconscious biases alter our experiences. These experiences then affect our future subconscious biases, resulting in a vicious cycle.<\/strong> For example, say you\u2019re a Black male interviewing for a job opening. Your interviewer is a white male with pro-white associations. Your unconscious mind picks up on the interviewer\u2019s subtle distance and lack of eye contact. Consequently, you lose confidence. Your interviewer\u2019s unconscious mind picks up on your lack of confidence. He gets the gut feeling that you\u2019re not competent or serious enough about the job. This reinforces the interviewer\u2019s unconscious, pro-white associations<\/strong> and reinforces his subconscious biases. Our subconscious biases regarding racial and gender attitudes matter<\/em>, regardless of what our stated, conscious attitudes are. Yes, but it takes effort. It\u2019s possible to fight the Warren Harding error<\/a>, to retrain your implicit assumptions by being aware of them and actively using your conscious mind to counter them. One car salesman has successfully used this strategy to ward off his subconscious biases about customers. Subconscious Bias in Car Sales<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Car salesmen have a history of prejudging customers. A 1990s study of how the race and gender of a customer affect the car price found that Chicago car dealers, spread over 242 dealerships, offer white men the lowest prices (an average of $725 above what the dealer paid for the car), followed by white women ($935 above invoice), Black women ($1,195 above invoice), and finally, Black men ($1,687 above invoice). You might think this is a conscious choice on the part of the dealers. They assume that anyone who isn\u2019t a white male is a sucker, stupid enough to pay a car\u2019s sticker price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the actors playing the part of customers in the study made it very obvious that they weren\u2019t stupid. Researchers instructed all \u201ccustomers,\u201d regardless of race or gender, to make it clear that they were educated, had successful careers, and lived in wealthy neighborhoods. Black and female customers bargained for an average of 40 minutes, demonstrating that they were not<\/em> willing to pay the sticker price. (White men didn\u2019t have to negotiate at all.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conscious minds of the dealers must have told them that these people clearly weren\u2019t suckers. But their unconscious minds weren\u2019t convinced.<\/strong> Chicago car salesmen unconsciously link the concept of a \u201clay-down\u201d with women and minorities. This is an example of subconscious bias. If for no other reason than to make more sales, it\u2019s in the seller\u2019s best interest to consciously fight subconscious biases. At least one man has caught on. Counter to general car-selling wisdom, the best salesman at one New Jersey dealership quotes everyone the same price. His reputation for being fair gets him many referrals, which make up a third of his business. He sells about 20 cars per month, double the average of most salesmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This salesman attributes his success to his conscious belief that you can\u2019t know which customer has the most money to spend or which one will be a lay-down. He understands the errors of unconscious attitudes that make judgments about customers, and makes a conscious effort to counter them. The statistics showing how much our unconscious attitudes influence our actions are grim. We can\u2019t choose our unconscious attitudes and subconscious biases. But does this mean we can\u2019t change<\/em> them? The technique of \u201cpriming\u201d gives us hope. Priming<\/a> demonstrates that our unconscious minds are extremely suggestible.<\/strong> This makes the unconscious vulnerable to negative suggestions, but it also makes it available for positive suggestions. Priming<\/a> sheds light on one way to influence otherwise inaccessible unconscious processes. Priming happens when your associations with one thing affect your reaction to something else. This makes more sense in context, so let\u2019s look at some priming experiments that demonstrate how easily swayed the unconscious mind is. (Shortform note: The concept of priming is controversial, since many of the studies have failed to replicate the original findings, suggesting the studies were either cherry-picked to yield the best results or, at worst, fabricated. At best, priming is a more complex phenomenon than originally thought.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This experiment involved what\u2019s called a \u201cscrambled-sentence test.\u201d It works like this: As quickly as possible, you read a set of five words and use four of them to make a grammatically correct sentence. Example<\/strong>: from are Florida oranges temperature<\/p>\n\n\n\n Example<\/strong>: shoes give replace old the<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experimenters divided undergraduates into two groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were only enough of these themed words to trigger the unconscious mind. The students didn\u2019t consciously pick up on the pattern.<\/strong> When they were finished unscrambling the sentences, the students were instructed to walk down the hall and talk to the researcher in charge of the experiment. But when the student got there, a confederate was blocking the doorway to the researcher\u2019s office and was deep in conversation with the researcher. The experimenters wanted to know how long the students would wait before interrupting the conversation. Results:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This experiment implies that subtle environmental cues can make us ruder or more polite in certain situations. We might have a subconscious bias toward politeness or rudeness, but priming can change this subconscious bias. Psychologists asked Black college students to take a test with 20 questions from the GRE. They divided the students into two groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nSuperficial Thin-Slicing<\/strong> Leads to Subconscious Bias<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nExample of Subconscious Bias: The Case of Warren Harding<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nConscious Versus Unconscious (or Subconscious) Attitudes<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Dangers of Subconscious Bias<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nSubconscious Bias Regarding Gender<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nSubconscious Bias Regarding Race<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nCan We Change Our <\/strong>Subconscious Biases?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Power of Priming<\/strong> in Fighting Subconscious Bias<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nPriming Experiment #1<\/strong>
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nPriming Experiment #2<\/strong>
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