Exploring the Harvard Implicit Association Tests, (IATs), was an interesting insight into the way our minds like to compartmentalize and take shortcuts. The IATs along with course materials indicated the plasticity of these biases over time and our ability to change them with proper conditioning. This is evidenced by people who have been deprogrammed from cults or forms of violent extremism like white supremacist groups. It all goes to show us how we can change the way we view the world with the proper amount of work. The initial questions were pretty boring to work through but I can see how they function to provide a baseline of how we view ourselves. I ended up taking the Race test and I was pretty nervous about what it was going to say despite knowing that outwardly, (and inwardly!), that I don’t harbor racist feelings. My result was that I do not hold bias towards those of another color; but I found it very interesting how they used switching of categories/sorting to try and trick the shortcuts that our brains like to take. This speaks to the reliability and validity of the testing methods because they work to address and identify any pre-existing feelings and correct for anyone trying to “game” the answers. Harvard and other researchers do this by asking the same question in different ways, maybe at different times, and this corrects for some user interference. These methods, or similar, need to be used by HR professionals and hiring managers to achieve the same aims. Management often falls into implicit bias traps when recruiting and selecting a talent pool by not using methods with enough reliability across different applicants, and enough validity across identifying individual strengths/weaknesses. One easy method to begin this process would be the removal of all demographically identifiable information from applications/resumes, (Walters Group). This allows for applicants to be selected purely on their merits and experiences, rather than have a chance to be affected by potential bias surrounding a name, race, or gender identity.

Robert Walters Group. (n.d.). How to remove unconscious bias from your hiring process. Global Specialist Professional Recruitment. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://www.robertwaltersgroup.com/news/expert-insight/careers-blog/how-to-remove-unconscious-bias-from-your-hiring-process.html