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Our assessments of others are never as objective as we believe them to be. Cognitive neuroscience research has taught us that most decisions we make, especially regarding people, are “alarmingly contaminated” by our biases. It is possible for us to treat others unfairly even when we believe it is wrong to do so. It is possible for us to hold unconscious stereotypes that we consciously oppose.īecause we are, by definition, unaware of our automatic, unconscious beliefs and attitudes, we believe we are acting in accordance with our conscious intentions, when in fact our unconscious is in the driver’s seat. Stereotypes reflect what we see and hear every day, not what we consciously believe about what we see and hear. These biases are reinforced on a daily basis without us knowing, or thinking consciously about it. For example, as we are repeatedly exposed to actual incidences or media portrayals of females as collaborative, nurturing and homemakers, and men as assertive, competitive, and bread-winners, those associations become automated in our long-term memory. Our unconscious social biases form involuntarily from our experiences. These hidden biases are different from beliefs and attitudes that individuals are aware they hold but choose to conceal for the purposes of complying with social or legal norms.
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Unconscious or implicit bias refers to beliefs or attitudes that are activated automatically and without an individual’s awareness.