06/25/2015
Inside UAMS article:
UNCONSCIOUS BIAS PRESENTATION PROVOKES DISCUSSION
Which of the following is least important — Self-Control, Honesty or Knowledge?
A full auditorium of participants offered answers and discussion of that and other questions in a June 23 interactive campus presentation on unconscious bias. The answers illustrate biases in values that can impact one’s approach to work or to interactions with others, according to facilitators of the presentation hosted by the Chancellor’s Diversity Committee and the UAMS Center for Diversity Affairs.
“These are the unsaid, unspoken and unconscious thoughts in the brain that lead to action,” said keynote speaker Erick Messias, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the College of Medicine. “And if we believe these biases can be learned we have to believe they can be unlearned.”
One strategy to address those biases is awareness, he said, along with institutional mechanisms that promote fairness, respect and diversity.
Billy Thomas, M.D., vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, began the event noting the Chancellor’s Diversity Committee has hosted regular events tied to celebrating diversity. This presentation, Unconscious Bias: Through the Looking Glass, is the second in a series intended to promote discussion on specific diversity issues and creating a more inclusive environment.
“I think we all realize we have unconscious biases that impact everything we do at some level,” Thomas said, adding it was important to be mindful of those influences as we approach our work to educate a culturally competent health care workforce prepared to care for a diverse population.
Although the presentation had been scheduled, Thomas and Messias both talked about how its timing seemed appropriate and fitting given the June 17 racially motivated killing of nine individuals at a historical black church in South Carolina.
Messias said he almost backed out of the presentation following the shooting. Having planned a light-hearted, informal examination of the topic of bias, he said, he was unsure how to proceed.
Showing an image of the nine shooting victims, Messias said he read about each and noted one was a librarian, one was a teacher, one a college student among the various backgrounds. “I realized they represented the best of America — not the best of black America but the best of America…that’s how I’ve been able to cope,” he said.
Messias highlighted two studies of bias — one involving resumes sent with white or black “sounding” names that showed job applicants with white-sounding names were more likely to get callbacks than more qualified applicants with black sounding names; another found white male car buyers got better deals when bargaining with dealers than women(white or black) or black men.
With unconscious bias, these preferences may occur without the person’s knowledge that he or she is acting in a biased way, he said. But this phenomenon does happen and has been quantified with these and other studies.
Messias suggested several potential strategies for addressing and reducing unconscious bias in the workplace. These include increasing awareness that everyone has biases and makes mistakes; ensuring an institution has an anonymous source to hear about instances of prejudice; offering an anonymous third-party complaint channel to mediate; promoting self-examination for yourself and the institution; encouraging positive images of persons from all backgrounds; and supporting programs that increase diversity within an institution.
An online set of tests to identify one’s unconscious bias is available at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/. Messias said instruments such as these tests can be used to promote self-awareness about implicit social cognition — thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness of control. He encouraged the audience to take the tests.
Facilitators for the discussion questions were Carmelita Smith, manager for diversity in the Center for Diversity Affairs, and Amber Booth, administrative specialist in the College of Medicine.
