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In an effort to create more diversity-friendly workplaces, tech giants like Google and Facebook have been training employees to recognize unconscious bias in the workplace. As the term implies, these biases are below the surface, unintended, and often undesired. They\u2019re implicit rather than explicit.<\/p>\n
Explicit biases are evident in what people say and do, and chances are those who have such prejudices are aware of them. The manager who talks negatively about \u201cthe millennials\u201d knows she holds the younger generation in low regard. The person who uses racist slurs doesn\u2019t try to hide his dislike of other races. The executive who believes women shouldn\u2019t be in leadership roles avoids recommending a female subordinate for promotion. These biases are all on the surface. Consequently, it\u2019s relatively easy to see the connection between these individuals\u2019 prejudices and their behavior in the workplace.\u00a0Not so with implicit or unconscious biases. Without realizing it, we may prefer to associate with younger people rather than older people, or enjoy the company of women more than men, or react more amicably to people of our own race. More concerning: we may unconsciously associate one group with positive stereotypes and another group with negative ones. Recent studies in psychology suggest that we all have implicit biases and that these biases influence our decisions.<\/p>\n
In the workplace, these implicit biases lead to micro-aggressions\u2014small slights or offenses that may go mostly unnoticed, but can add up to systematic discrimination or even a hostile work environment. Research shows, for example, that resumes with white-sounding names are more likely to get callbacks than resumes with black-sounding names. And it\u2019s not because companies have official policies or practices against hiring minorities; it\u2019s the result of unconscious bias.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for those affected, unconscious bias is difficult to prove. It\u2019s one thing to demonstrate that resumes with white-sounding names get more callbacks; it\u2019s quite another to prove that a particular hiring manager gave special treatment to white applicants in a specific instance. And even if we could demonstrate implicit biases in the workplace, penalizing people may not be the best way to address the behavior. After all, they\u2019re not deliberately chosen or the consequence of willful neglect.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the solution? The jury is still out on that.<\/p>\n
Some companies are trying to make their employees more aware of their unconscious biases by having them take implicit association tests. As of now, however, we don\u2019t yet know how effective these \u201craise awareness\u201d efforts will prove to be\u2014if they have any positive effect at all.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, some companies are using hiring applications that hide identifying information so that race, gender, and other protected classes can\u2019t be taken into account early in the interview process. While these indirect efforts won\u2019t remove people\u2019s unconscious biases, they may help mitigate their effects on employment decisions, thereby reducing discrimination in the workplace.<\/p>\n