Week 5: How do you think implicit bias could impact the reliability or validity of a selection?

What is implicit bias? It is when someone has subconscious feelings, attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes that they have developed due to prior influences and imprints throughout their lives. People intentionally say negative things about others but do not know that there is intentional discrimination.

With this mindset, many problems can occur with implicit bias. One is Implicit bias itself; it can cause people to assume how other people are and start judging others unconsciously negatively based on their behavior. With that comes inaccurate assessments on the individual themselves. For example, an interviewee can come across and interviewee with all the skills qualified for the job but if the interviewee is gay and the interviewer is very conservative, this can lead to conflict.

When it comes to the hiring process, companies must abide by many legal rules, and discrimination is an issue most companies try really hard to manage. Implicit bias has a negative impact on validity because employers can either hire someone that is not right for the job or reject someone that is actually right for the job.

Lastly, the company’s ethical and legal aspects can be affected by implicit bias. It can possibly lead to discrimination against protected groups, or companies may face legal trouble if it shows with the 4/5th rule that there is discrimination. Again may people with implicit bias many no know that the way they are acting is discrimination towards a group and if many of the same thinkers are in one group judging others than that is where the problem can happen.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589697/#:~:text=Implicit%20bias%20includes%20the%20subconscious,and%20imprints%20throughout%20their%20lives.