After participating in an implicit bias test at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/, I am relatively ashamed of my results. The test that I ended up taking was the Weight IAT. I tested and was placed in the “moderate automatic preference for thin people compared to fat people” along with 28% of other participants. Althought I wasn’t in the worst offending category, my results are news to me. Going into this test, I had assumed I would have an implicit bias to prefering skinny people to fat people but I didn’t know the bias was this present. Going forward, I need to be aware of my biases and how to mitigate them to give every person an equal shot.
In the article How to Take the Bias out of Interviews, comparative evaluations are listed as a way to calibrate across stereotypes and look at information rather than physical aspects of people. In an personal effort to eradicate and mitigate implicit bias I looked for other source that gave tips on how to remove bias from individual to individual, not just in the workplace. The article (2) suggests that increasing your exposure with different experiences with different groups will replace past experiences that you’ve had with other individuals with their characteristics. Those individuals that have limited exposure to individuals with different backgrounds and characteristics have only those experiences to draw upon. The article also states that taking time to pause and reflect as well as adjusting your perspective will help to reduce these biases.
In the future I plan to take more bias tests and actively work to find out what my biases are, how strong they are and work to consciously change my stereotypes.
Rewferences:
[1] Bohnet, I. (2016, July 18). How to take the bias out of interviews. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews.
[2] Cherry, K. (2020, September 18). Is it possible to overcome implicit bias? Verywell Mind. Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/implicit-bias-overview-4178401.
