I chose to complete the Implicit Association Test for Age Bias since my education and future career are centered around senior care. I’m earning a certificate in healthy aging, and I plan to work in retirement home administration after graduation.
I was surprised to discover that I have a moderate automatic preference for young people over old people. I thought that I would have had a neutral bias or even a preference for older people because I truly enjoy spending time with older people. I grew up around my grandparents and have many happy memories with them. I am passionate about improving elder care public policies.
The article How to Think About Implicit Bias, helped me interpret my results. The article writes that an individual’s Implicit Bias Test results should not be used to predict an individual’s future actions and decisions, but is more useful to predict average outcomes across populations, like for example how countries with greater implicit bias have larger racial disparities in infant health problems. I realized that everyone has implicit biases, and what is important is to acknowledge and address them so that they don’t negatively impact others in a work or personal environment.
Thinking about implicit bias reminds me of my days as a server at the Olive Garden. As a server, you work for tips, so many servers develop biases based on past customers or personal beliefs. For example, I held a bias against young teenage customers because I had a table of teenagers dine and dash once. One night, I had a table of teenagers. At first, I was apprehensive and told my coworkers to keep an eye on them, but I was forced to face my bias when they were nothing but polite and left a handsome tip. In my six years as a server, I’ve learned it’s best to approach every customer with the same welcoming and charming attitude, because you really never know.
Keith Payne, K., Niemi, L., & Doris, J. M. (2018, March 27). How to think about implicit bias. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-think-about-implicit-bias/
Nabors, J. (2019, September 13). Why we must understand and address implicit bias. Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity, North Carolina State University. https://equalopportunity.ncsu.edu/news/2019/09/13/why-we-must-understand-and-address-implicit-bias-2/