Hello all,
I just finished taking my first implication bias test. Honestly reminded me of the ADHD test they make you take for a diagnostic, so I did not enjoy that part of it.
When I first was beginning the test I thought I was gonna do “better” than I actually did. I consider myself someone who values treating everyone with respect, and avoiding bias when it comes to race, gender, etc. Like everyone, I have my own opinions that some may consider biasses but from my perspective there is logic behind it. The test said, “You were much faster at sorting ‘Muslim People’ with ‘Bad’ and ‘Christian People’ with ‘Good’ than ‘Christian People’ with ‘Bad’ and ‘Muslim People’ with ‘Good.” Honestly, I was upset that these are my results. I have mentors, and friends that are muslim so I would have never thought these were my results. Ironically I am Christian and I think I have a more negative few of Christians than I do Muslims. So safe to say Im shocked.
Thinking about job interview process, I do wonder how often implication bias effects interviews. I mean it’s probably quite often, it wasn’t that long ago that people deemed tattoos as a indication of criminal activity, or just overall unprofessional or a bad connotation. Everyone has some type of bias within there head so I wonder what the best way to avoid this is. If you are interviewing with bias it makes the interview unreliable and likely based on poor judgements.
I think the best way to overcome the issues is by starting to accept the reality that this happens all the time and likely you are doing it right now. Ignorance in these cases does not help anyone overcome biasses. I would also priotize skill based hiring, or even trying to have hiring processes where you cant see the person, you only speak to them. That would be quite interesting to see how the work industry would change.