Idea: In order to shift a collective culture that reinforces unconscious bias across the board, we surprisingly may need to place a larger spotlight on our individual differences within communities.

The End of Bias: A Beginning (Jessica Nordell)

These passages are from Chapter 10: Unbreaking Culture

Passages:

Transforming the minds, hearts, and habits of individuals i one way to change bias. Another, as we’ve seen, is to change processes, structures, and the culture of organizations. The two, of course, are intertwined: individuals create the processes, structures, and organizational culture, and these in turn shape individuals’ thoughts and actions. But we are also the product of our larger culture – the broader environment in which we live. Change can additionally begin from this third starting point.

In a set of experiments by Abdelatif Er-Rafiy and Markus Brauer, researchers created large posters with photographs of people of Arab origin. The posters had the person’s name, age, and a distinct personality trait such as “Optimistic” or “Stingy”. Finally, each poster had the words “What makes us the same is that we are all different” as part of the campaign.

Researcher’s then measured an individual’s unconscious bias towards people of Arab origin after seeing the posters and found that they acted in a less biased way. Jessica goes on the highlight that the findings suggest that unconscious bias towards racial, cultural, or ethnic groups require one to view those groups as one body over which one can apply their beliefs or view. The idea of “all black people are…” or “every Muslim is…”. But when the idea of individuals within these groups are highlighted, it becomes more difficult to make sweeping assumptions about the whole group.

This is Interesting Because: