Learning about Implicit Bias

by

I’ve read that roughly a third of America’s CEOs are taller than 6’2” even though a very small percentage of the population is that height or more. The same phenomenon with U.S. Presidential Candidates – statistically, throughout history, the taller candidate has a better chance of winning.

This is of interest to me because I am the descendant of a long line of vertically conservative (short) English and Czech ancestors. I aspire to be neither a President nor a CEO, but the phenomenon still strikes me as unfair.

The human brain is hardwired to associate tall people with desirable qualities like strength, leadership, and potential for success – whether or not a particular individual who happens to be tall exhibits those qualities. In a more brutal world, when saber-toothed tigers lurked and people had to stick together to survive, it made sense to hope that there were some big guys in the clan and to look to those big guys for leadership.

Not that I should complain, as in most categories, I have significant advantages in the assumptions people make about me – the kind of advantages that help people become CEOs and U.S. Presidents, regardless of their height. I am middle-aged, white, heterosexual, male, educated, married, professional, and middle-class. I receive plenty of respect in my daily interactions with others, even if I don’t tower over them.

Younger people, older people, Black people, LatinX people, Asian people, LGBTQ people, women, people who didn’t go to college, single people, people working blue-collar jobs, people who don’t work, people who live in less wealthy parts of town – all of them could tell me some things about the assumptions people make about them. Assumptions that I am making about them without even realizing it. Assumptions that may not be fair. And that’s why it’s important that I stop and listen and learn.

If I see a black cat, my mind automatically fills in the blanks – bad luck – based on what I heard about black cats in my childhood. I don’t consciously believe black cats have anything to do with bad luck, but my unconscious mind will never be rid of that association. And like everyone else, my mind is hardwired to make the same kind of automatic associations about people – about tall people, about other people.

Back in the ‘90s, a couple of psychologists named Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald coined the term implicit bias when they theorized that social behavior is largely influenced by unconscious associations and judgments. Implicit bias (aka unconscious bias) is the automatic associations and assumptions we make about other people without even thinking about it.

The trouble with implicit bias is that our automatic assumptions influence the way we treat people, often in very unfair ways. Becoming aware of our implicit bias is an important step in growing to love our neighbors the way Jesus loves.

The Rev. Matt Ashley serves as South District Superintendent of the Desert Southwest Conference. This article is republished with permission from the conference website. To reproduce this content eelsewhere, please email conference communications director Christina Dillabough.