[ 04 ] Revealing the Hidden Threads: Exploring the Roots and Psychology of Unconscious Bias

This article traces the historical origins and cognitive underpinnings of unconscious bias, revealing how biases manifest even in subtle, automatic ways. Rooted in social and cognitive psychology, the exploration delves into key processes shaping unconscious biases: implicit associations, stereotyping, the availability heuristic, confirmation bias, and neurological factors. 

It examines how biases develop through socialization, influenced by family, media, and peers, and highlights the role of personal experiences in reinforcing or challenging biases. By unraveling these intricate processes, the article provides insight into the complex mechanisms that shape unconscious biases, ultimately emphasizing the importance of awareness and efforts to counter these biases for a fairer and more inclusive society.

 

Historical Roots. . .

In the later part of the 1900s, psychologists and researchers became more interested in figuring out why people have biased beliefs and how these beliefs affect the way they act. They started to realize that biases aren't just obvious and intentional, but they can also be more subtle and automatic, happening without us even realizing it.

 The study of unconscious bias has its roots in the fields of social psychology and cognitive psychology. These fields developed as a way to answer questions about how people think, see the world, and interact with others. They especially looked at how people behave when they're part of a group and influenced by the society they live in.

 Scientists saw the importance of understanding biases that happen without us knowing, and they came up with tools to study these hidden biases. This kind of research has really helped us learn how biases develop, how they affect what we do, and how we can do better to make things fairer for everyone.

In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers like Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald began studying implicit biases – biases that operate automatically and unconsciously. Their work led to the development of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in the 1990s. The IAT is a tool that measures the strength of associations between concepts, revealing implicit biases that individuals might not even be aware of.

 

The Role of Cognitive Processes in Forming and Sustaining Unconscious Bias.

Unconscious bias means our brains make quick and unintentional connections that affect how we see things, decide, and act. These connections happen automatically, without us realizing it. They're rooted in how we think and are shaped by how we grew up, what society teaches us, and what we've been through. These biases can impact how we deal with people, who we hire, and even how doctors diagnose illnesses. They come from our experiences and can lead us to treat people unfairly without meaning to.

1. Implicit Association (Connecting ideas without knowing):

Our minds can link different ideas together because of our experiences, even if we don't realize it. For example, we might connect certain qualities with specific genders or cultures. This happens when our brains connect certain traits with certain groups without us realizing it. These connections can affect how we see things and judge them.

 The Implicit Association Test is a common tool to measure these hidden biases. It checks how strong the connections are between ideas, like different races and good/bad words. In a study by Greenwald and Krieger in 2006, they used this test and found that people often had stronger links between positive words and white faces, and negative words and black faces. This shows that there's a hidden bias favoring white individuals.

2. Stereotyping (Labeling Others):

We tend to put people and things into categories based on ideas we already have, or stereotypes. This can make us assume things about individuals or whole groups.

Our brain puts lots of information in groups to make things easier to understand. But this can lead to stereotyping, where we attach certain qualities to whole groups based on just a few things we notice.

 In 1995, Steele and Aronson talked about "stereotype threat." This means people get worried that they'll prove a bad idea about their group true. This worry can make them do worse because they're stressed about fitting that stereotype. For example, girls might do worse in math if they think people believe girls aren't good at it.

Thinking in stereotypes is a way we show unconscious bias. Bargh and others did a test in 1996. They showed people words linked to stereotypes about old people. After that, these people started moving slower, even if they didn't mean to. This shows how our thoughts can make us act in biased ways without us knowing.

3. Availability Heuristic (Thinking about what we remember):
 
We often trust information that's easy to remember in our minds. If we keep hearing the same stories or examples, they can shape how we think without us noticing.

 Our brain uses shortcuts called heuristics to quickly make sense of things. These shortcuts help us decide fast, but they can also make us have biases. Like the availability heuristic, which means we use examples we remember easily to understand situations. If we keep hearing the same stereotypes, they get stuck in our minds and affect how we judge things.

 This shortcut, the availability heuristic, is tied to unconscious bias. In 1973, Tversky and Kahneman talked about how people decide how likely something is based on how easily they remember it. If the media always talks bad about certain groups, those ideas become strong in our minds. This affects how we see things and what we think.

4. Confirmation Bias (Seeing what we already think) :

Often, we notice and remember things that agree with what we already believe. And we tend to ignore things that disagree with our beliefs. This makes our biases stronger.

People usually look for information that supports what they already think, while ignoring stuff that doesn't. This makes our biases stronger because we only pay attention to things that match what we already believe.

Confirmation bias is a well-known idea. It means we look for and understand information that proves our ideas right. This can make our unconscious biases even stronger. In a study in 1979, Lord, Ross, and Lepper showed that people interpret things in a way that supports what they believe, even if it's not about biases.

Confirmation bias makes our biases stick around. In the same study by Lord et al. (1979), people read arguments about the death penalty. They only really thought about the ones that agreed with what they already thought. This shows how confirmation bias can make us keep our biased beliefs.

 5. Neurological Processes (How our brains work) :

Studies show that our brains might create unconscious biases because of how they're built and how they work. Some parts of the brain that help us decide things, remember stuff, and handle emotions can also lead to biases.

Research says that our brains might cause unconscious biases. For example, Phelps and her team in 2000 used a fancy brain scan (fMRI) to look at racial biases. They saw that the amygdala, a brain part linked to feelings, got active when people saw faces of different races. This might be part of why biases happen.

Formation of Unconscious Biases through Socialization and Personal Experiences

Unconscious biases develop because of how we're brought up and what we go through in life. Our families, the media, and the people we hang out with shape our attitudes and beliefs. And our own experiences and the way we think also affect these biases. These biases are like quick judgments that affect how we see and treat different people and situations. They can be good or bad, and they come from a mix of how we learn from the world around us and what we personally go through.

1. Socialization:

Socialization is the way we figure out how to act and what to believe based on the culture and society we're part of. While we're learning, biases can come from different places like our family, friends, media, and schools.

It's like learning how to fit in and understand what's normal in your society. But while you're learning, you might also start thinking in certain ways about different things, influenced by your family, friends, what you see on TV, and what you learn in school. These thoughts are like ideas that can make you see things and people in a certain light.

a. Family

Families are like important teachers when it comes to learning how to behave and think in society. They can pass on biases by either directly telling you things or by showing you how to act in certain ways. Kids watch how their parents and other family members act and talk about different groups of people, and this can shape how they see those groups too.

A study by Aboud in 1988 called "Children and Prejudice" ((PDF) Social identity and ethnic prejudice in children, n.d.) discovered that even very young children, as young as three years old, can start to show biases because of what they see and hear from their families.

b. Media

Mass media, like TV, movies, and news, has a big effect on how we see different groups. They show certain groups in specific ways, and this can create biases. For example, they might show one race or gender more often doing bad things, which isn't fair. A study by Dixon and Linz in 2000 called "Overrepresentation and Underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as Lawbreakers on Television News" showed how media can make biases about races worse by the way they show things on the news.

The study by Dixon and Linz in 2000 looked at how TV news shows African Americans and Latinos who break the law. They found that these groups were shown more often as lawbreakers on the news compared to other groups. This made it seem like they were doing more bad things than they actually were. This kind of portrayal on TV can make people believe that these groups are more involved in crime than they really are. So, the study showed how the news can make biases against these groups worse by showing them in a certain way.

c. Peers
 
Friends and people your age can also shape how you think. When you're around them, you learn what's normal and okay in your group. Sometimes, this can include having certain biases. For example, teenagers might start thinking like their friends to fit in. There's a study by Bigler and Liben in 2006 called "A Developmental Intergroup Theory of Social Stereotypes and Prejudice." This study talks about how kids' friend groups can make them see certain groups in a certain way.

The study looked at how children develop ideas about different groups of people and biases. They found that kids learn these ideas from their social groups, like friends and classmates. The study explained that as kids grow up, they start to notice differences between groups, like boys and girls, or different races. These differences can lead to stereotypes, which are assumptions about what a group is like.

The study also talked about how kids want to be part of their social groups, so they might adopt the same ideas and biases as their friends to fit in. This can happen even if these ideas are not true or fair. So, the study showed how friends and social groups can shape the way kids think about different people, which can lead to biases and stereotypes.

2. Personal Experiences:

The things you go through in life, both the ones you directly experience and the ones you hear about, can also make you develop biases.

a. Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias: Sometimes, people look for information that agrees with what they already think. This can make their biases stronger because they only pay attention to things that support their ideas. This can also make stereotypes and prejudices get stronger.

b. Contact Hypothesis

When you talk and spend time with people from different groups, it can change how you see them. The Contact Hypothesis says that if these interactions are positive, your biases can become weaker. This happens because getting to know others can help you understand them better and feel more connected to them.

c. Negative Events

Negative experiences with individuals from certain groups can contribute to biases. If someone has experienced harm from a member of a particular group, they may develop a negative bias against the entire group. This is often related to the availability heuristic, where easily recalled negative experiences become disproportionately influential in shaping biases.

 

 

In summary . . .

Psychologists in the later 1900s studied how and why biased beliefs form and how they impact our actions. They realized that biases can be hidden and ingrained, coming from how we were raised and the environment around us. This led to research on unconscious bias, which uncovers hidden prejudices.

 Biases form when our brains connect ideas based on things we've experienced before. Confirmation bias makes these prejudices stronger, availability heuristic relies on what we remember, and stereotyping puts labels on groups.

 Unconscious biases come from media, friends, family, and how we interact with society. Good or bad personal experiences shape our biases. Negative experiences can create biases against certain groups, but biases become weaker when we meet different people.

 In simple terms, our brains quickly make subtle connections that affect our thoughts and actions. Biases develop through experiences, media, and how we were raised, influencing how we treat others. We can become more fair by learning about biases and interacting with diverse people.

 

References :

Bargh, J.A., Chen, M. and Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, [online] 71(2), pp.230–244. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.71.2.230.

Bigler, R.S. and Liben, L.S. (2006). A developmental intergroup theory of social stereotypes and prejudice. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, [online] 34, pp.39–89. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2407(06)80004-2.

Dixon, T. (2000). Overrepresentation and underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as lawbreakers on television news. Journal of Communication, [online] 50(2), pp.131–154. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/50.2.131.

Greenwald, A.G. and Krieger, L.H. (2006). Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundations. California Law Review, 94(4), pp.945–967. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/20439056.

Lord, C.G., Ross, L. and Lepper, M.R. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11), pp.2098–2109. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.2098.

Phelps, E.A., O’Connor, K.J., Cunningham, W.A., Funayama, E.S., Gatenby, J.C., Gore, J.C. and Banaji, M.R. (2000). Performance on Indirect Measures of Race Evaluation Predicts Amygdala Activation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, [online] 12(5), pp.729–738. doi:https://doi.org/10.1162/089892900562552.

(PDF) Social identity and ethnic prejudice in children. (n.d.). ResearchGate. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242074844_Social_identity_and_ethnic_prejudice_in_children.

Tversky, A. and Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: a Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability. Cognitive Psychology, [online] 5(2), pp.207–232. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0010028573900339.

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‌#1 Unmasking Unconscious Bias  
#2 Breaking the Chains
#3 Shattering Illusions

 

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