Implicit
Bias
“As
human beings, we live in a language of connection and context.”
Sara
(Letter to The Painter’s Keys, “The Irony of Creativity,” April 22, 2022)
Implicit
bias is our tendency to look for associations and patterns and to prefer the
known to the new and different. It’s our need to control outcomes by keeping
everything the same. For instance, we do this when we judge large swaths of people based on our limited experience of a few. We protest
when it comes to changes in our way of life because the
status quo seems safer. Too often, we do this by vilifying those who attempt to
make the change happen. We are threatened by new ideas in culture and art, in
science and technology, and in most other areas of life where change is rapid.
We believe our way, or the old way, is better, and if this new way becomes the
norm, then we will have to adapt—and that’s uncomfortable.
Case in point: Many of us
who did not grow up with computers are frustrated by technology in general. Our
implicit bias is to pick up a phone and get a live human
being on the other end. We explain what we need or want, and they respond
appropriately. What we get almost all the time now is a computer-generated voice
with a menu of options that don’t include the one we want. Millennials, on the
other hand, simply google the website and intuitively know how to find the
appropriate conduit for questions and answers. They have an implicit bias that
favors getting information via smart phone computers. Phone calls are not their
generation’s technology; they’re ours. They text. We talk.
Implicit
bias operates in many areas of our lives. We tend to go to the same restaurants
over and over, we want a certain kind of art on our walls, we organize our home
to our liking and when someone changes it, we’re thrown off and grumpy. We like
people who share our ideas and prefer to spend our time with those who are “agreeable.”
We tend to like people who look and behave like us. Most of this picking and
choosing is unconscious and may even be counter to our stated opinion. For
instance, we can hold the belief that we are all equal in the eyes of God and
man, all brothers and sisters in Christ, but the most segregated hour of the week is 11 o’clock
on Sunday morning.
Implicit
bias is a human condition. We can counter the parts that are conscious, like
our choices in art and music, or people and places, by providing ourselves with
variety. But the parts of it that are unconscious are harder to get to. We have
an innate belief that new ideas and new people are risky. We are often threatened
by innovation even when we say we welcome it. We see this play out culturally whenever
dramatic change is impending—like changing from fossil fuels to renewable
energy, like gender identification being challenged, like same-sex marriage,
and inclusion of people from other countries who speak a different language even though our ancestors were exactly the same. We resist what is not familiar.
Of
course, this is not an American issue only—it’s humanity-wide. The problem is
that our tendency toward implicit bias keeps us stuck and fractious; it’s like
a train moving down the tracks with the brakes on. The more we can make our
biases conscious, especially when they exclude or damage others, the better it
will be—less hostile, and more peaceful. There’s no shame in this. We all hold implicit
biases; no one is exempt. We are all on board this train, so it’s up to us to
make the ride more comfortable.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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