5 Ways to Uncover and Challenge Unconscious Biases Today
By uncovering your unconscious biases you can reshape your perspectives, decisions, and behaviors.
Several years ago I chaperoned my son’s soccer team at a college showcase tournament. Since this was a high-level team, we traveled to the out-of-town tournament by air. The team was made up of 18 young men from Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs, all within the same 12-month age span, and all with a passion for the game of soccer.
On our trip home, we successfully received our boarding passes, and the 18 players and two mom chaperones headed to security. When we arrived, we realized that some of us had been assigned to skip the long security line and go through the TSA PreCheck line.
One by one we looked at our ticket and chose which line to go to — left regular or right PreCheck. Suddenly I heard my son scream, “MOM!” And, with horror in his eyes, he yelled, “Look at how they segmented us.” Slowly, I looked up and saw the players of color on the left side of the rope and the white players, and two white moms on the right. I too was horrified. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My heart started racing, as I shared my surprise and frustration with the other mom.
The PreCheck line was shorter, so I maneuvered in front of the few white players from the team and leaped towards the security checkpoint. I found myself standing in front of a young black woman and I said, “Please take a look behind me. I am chaperoning those young men. They are from the same community and are on the same team, but yet have been segmented by race for security. This is inexcusable!”
She looked at me and repeated, what I assume she was trained to say, and most likely said often, “Our computers randomly assigned the lines.” Shaking in frustration I said, “What’s random about what you’re witnessing behind me?” She handed me my ticket and gestured to me to move on.
I think about that experience often. In my mind, I see the boys standing on the left side of the rope with their heads hanging low and eyes facing the floor, while the boys standing on the right side of the rope quickly recognizing and verbalizing the bias they were witnessing before their eyes, but of course not fully understanding the gravity of what their peers were going through.
The situation opened up a great conversation between the boys while the moms listened in. I, however, felt as the adult representing all of the boys, more should have been done. They deserved better. I should have used the power I had to vocalize the injustice that required more explanation.
Whether or not the assertion was accurate and the process was random, I will never know. Did the person issuing the tickets have a conscious or unconscious bias that was reflected in a few of us receiving the PreCheck status based on race? If the process truly was randomly assigned by the system, the airline had a problem with bias in their algorithms.
I can’t change the way I reacted that day, but I can commit to doing better next time. This experience was a reminder that biases exist and biases have the potential to have a very negative impact on individuals.
Unconscious Biases
Almost every day in the news, there is at least one story about racism, sexism, or ageism. For many of us, we may think, “That’s not me.” The reality is that even amongst the most well-intended and open-minded people, unconscious biases exist. Most of us are unaware of our own biases and how they impact our decision making.
Cognitive biases, or errors in thinking processes, result from our brains naturally wanting to take a shortcut in order to reason or make a judgment. Our brains are wired to do this. Biases drive what we perceive, how we think, and what actions we take.
Over the last few months, we’ve been talking a lot about mindset and the importance of resetting our mindset to flourish after 50. Our mindsets influence our biases (and vice versa), so it’s important to pay attention, recognize our personal biases, and do everything we can to reframe them for our personal well-being and the well-being of others.
Common Biases to Be Aware Of
Although this isn’t a comprehensive list, here are some common biases to be aware of.
Self Serving Bias — attributing positive outcomes to skill and negative outcomes to luck
Implicit Bias — having innate preferences for people who look like us and suspicion for people who don’t
Confirmation Bias — seeking information and data that confirms pre-existing ideas and ignore data that contradict what we initially believed
Herd Mentality Bias — copying and following what others are doing (influenced by our emotions versus by an independent analysis of the facts)
Overconfidence Bias — having a false sense of skills, talents, knowledge, or ability greater than it is
Optimism or Pessimism Bias — overestimating the likelihood of positive or negative outcomes based on emotion.
Declining Bias — favoring the past (resisting change) over and above how things are going today
False Consensus Effect — overestimating how much other people agree with our own beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and values
Recognize and Challenge Personal Biases
There are ways to begin recognizing your own biases.
Start here.
Increase awareness. Start by noticing your decisions, reactions, judgments, and responses throughout the day.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Why am I making this decision, having a reaction, or responding this way?
Is my decision, reaction, judgment, or response based on fact or emotion?
Is this one of my biases?
Who and what is making me uncomfortable? Why?
What is my role in my actions?
Reflect back on the different cognitive biases. Are you making a decision, reacting, judging, or responding to the situation in a biased way? If you’re uncertain, ask a trusted friend or family member.
Practice responding differently based on your new awareness and knowledge.
Do things to shift your perception of the world and other people. Follow people who think differently than you. Explore new and diverse experiences to help see past what may be blind spots in your beliefs.
By uncovering your unconscious biases you can reshape your perspectives, decisions, and behaviors. Adopting a learning mindset toward yourself and your personal biases is a start to making more conscious decisions, altering your thought patterns, and resetting your mindset for flourishing after 50.
Together we RUMBLE.