Unconscious bias can take many different forms. Jodie, a quality control manager in Sunderland, has an autism diagnosis and felt this led to her being excluded from meetings. When she once questioned why she was not being invited, she was told that the agenda didn’t concern her, even though “they were discussing a quality problem and I was their quality control person”.
Tania, a former executive in the charity sector who lives near Manchester, was the manager of her team in her last job, but she was also the youngest member. “If I attended a meeting with a colleague from our team, others would always assume my colleague was the manager.”
The impact of other people’s unconscious biases is far more subtle than overt discrimination but it can be just as damaging and painful for those on the receiving end. A female surgeon from Birmingham, who prefers to remain anonymous, explains what she experiences at work: “Because I’m brown, patients assume I must have come from abroad,” she says. “I’ve been told by quite a few that I speak English quite well. And when I’m with a male junior, it’s assumed that he’s the senior. I’ve had this from both colleagues and patients.
“Another thing that happens is that when I mention to colleagues that I’m going on annual leave, I get asked if I’ll be ‘going home’. Because home must be somewhere abroad, and not up the road.”
Given that these kinds of biases are by definition beyond our conscious minds and often deeply ingrained, ridding ourselves of them might seem like a big undertaking. But we are able to disrupt these biases and, in turn, prevent them unknowingly influencing our behaviour and decision making. The important thing is to become more aware of our biases, says Roshni Goyate, co-founder and head of communications at The Other Box, a diversity and inclusion company that educates businesses about bias. Here are six ways you can start to do just that …
Understand what unconscious bias is
The human brain can receive and process an estimated 11m bits of information each second, but our conscious minds are able to process only about 50 bits. “This means we have to rely on our subconscious, which helps us filter information by taking mental shortcuts,” says Angela Peacock, global director of diversity and inclusion at the training and measurement firm PDT Global.
These shortcuts are partly influenced by our attitudes and assumptions about matters such as race, gender, sexuality, disability and socio-economic status. In filtering this information, our subconscious will be influenced not just by opinions we know we harbour, but by those we’re not even aware of. Without us realising it, our unconscious bias is being reinforced by systemic prejudices.
“Unconscious bias can occur in many forms,” says Emma Kosmin, associate director of workplace client relationships at the LGBT+ rights charity Stonewall. “And includes matters such as assuming everyone has an opposite-sex partner.”
It also encompasses all those silly and lazy national stereotypes.
Be curious
One step to challenging bias, whether conscious or unconscious, is to nurture a sense of curiosity. This is because curiosity makes us more open-minded and can protect us from a host of biases that come into play when we’re dealing with situations such as a desire to confirm our beliefs or bolster our standing within a particular group.
Adopting an attitude of curiosity is also useful when it comes to exploring your own privilege. Think about times when you may have been given a leg up, says Peacock, and whether this would have happened if you were different in terms of race, sexual orientation, gender or physical appearance.
Stop and think
Combining curiosity with mindfulness is a particularly useful technique for uncovering your biases. As Goyate points out: “Unconscious biases are an automatic reaction. To counteract this, it helps to become present in your body and in your mind.”
Pausing in this way gives you time to reflect on instinctive reactions or so-called gut feelings. Goyate recommends asking yourself: “Have I taken in all the objective information before I make my decision or am I just going on something that I’ve been conditioned to do?”
Peacock encourages mindfulness when you encounter another person. “Stop and ask yourself, ‘What could I know?’ and ‘What should I know?’. Asking yourself these questions – whatever your initial reaction – can be very powerful. They cause the brain to look for additional evidence and interrupt the natural ‘bias flow’.”
Seek diversity
Seeking out the experiences of those with backgrounds and identities unlike your own will challenge your biases and opinions too. If you mix with people from outside your traditional circle, that will help to break down assumptions, says Peacock. “How many friends from different racial groups do you have? How many neurodiverse people? Any gender fluid people?”
While it may have been difficult to expand your circle of friends during lockdown, another way to explore different perspectives on life is through culture and entertainment. Goyate suggests seeking out books, films, TV shows or podcasts produced by people who look or live differently from you.
Listen and learn
Your workplace may offer formal and informal opportunities to nurture curiosity about diversity and inclusion, and one way to guard against unconscious bias is to participate in any training on offer.
The savings, retirement and insurance business Aviva, for instance, has an ongoing commitment to ensuring an inclusive environment for staff and customers. Recently, as part of this commitment, it launched its latest course – anti-racism training. Jonny Briggs, group head of talent acquisition and diversity and inclusion, says that the course educates employees and is a call to action to all to stop racism. He also feels that while the training focuses on ethnicity, many of the principles covered are relevant to the company’s other “communities”.
Within Aviva, there are six Inclusion Communities that cover gender, age, ability, sexuality, ethnicity, faith and social economics. Employees are urged to join multiple groups based on how they identify or, Briggs says, “so that more people can understand the perspective of others”.
It’s always important to listen to the experiences of colleagues, particularly if the circles you mix in outside work are homogenous. “Organisations can give a platform to, for instance, LGBT+ role models among staff members,” says Kosmin. “This allows them to talk about their experiences and help others understand the challenges they face.”
Consider organisational policies
Company policy can support initiatives to counter bias and to further embed diversity and inclusion within an organisation. Aviva, for instance, introduced equal parental leave and flexible working policies to support employees as parents and carers, and to challenge gender norms and stereotypes.
Anthony Fitzpatrick, head of colleague experience and employment policy, says that breaking down barriers was an overt intention. When childcare falls almost entirely on women “it drives cultural stereotypes, unconscious bias and conscious bias”, he says. “It can affect salary progression and have other knock-on impacts.”
Thanks to these policies, 84% of new fathers within Aviva took at least six months of parental leave in 2020 – and the firm encourages them to speak out about doing this. “We ask our dads who have taken parental leave to share stories of their experiences and the benefits it brings in helping create a more equal society,” says Briggs.
The role that organisations play in developing solutions are particularly important given the structural roots of so many of our biases. “We’ve internalised systemic oppression,” says Goyate. “Our biases are like a cassette tape deck – they are replayed and perpetuated.” It’s time to press the stop button.
To find out more, visit aviva.co.uk
