This annual review tracks the latest research in the growing field of implicit bias. In addition to trends in the public domain and scholarly realm, the publication provides a detailed discussion of 2014 literature in the areas of criminal justice, health and health care, employment, education, and housing, as well as the latest ideas for debiasing.
- Contrary to the common belief that the nation's progress with gender and racial equity has largely confined biases today to a small group of aberrational actors, researchers have shown that implicit biases are widespread and operate largely beneath the radar of human consciousness.
- News stories that brought implicit bias into public discourse in the past year often centered on deaths of Black men during interactions with police officers.
- One of the more robust areas of implicit bias research related to criminal justice, encompassing both policing (shooter/weapons bias and implicit bias training of police officers) as well as courtroom procedures.
- In a notable divergence from previous literature, several 2014 health articles failed to establish a connection between physicians' implicit biases and treatment decisions by race.
- The employment realm remained a key driver of implicit bias dialogue, fueled in part by a short video that permeated mainstream media detailing one man's experience with unconscious bias while searching for a job.
- Researchers have devoted attention to studying debiasing techniques, with several approaches suggesting possibilities: exposing people to counter-stereotypic individuals or other counter-stereotypic training; intergroup contact; awareness and education about implicit bias; increasing a sense of accountability; taking the perspective of others; and engaging in deliberative processing.
Published by
- Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity