Meridian School Unconscious and Implicit Bias

Meridian School
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
Seattle Girls’ School
Implicit and Unconscious Bias:
Bridging the Distance Between
Professed Values and Daily Behaviors
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

About Seattle Girls’ School

Goals for the Day
Implicit and Unconscious Bias
Bias in Everyday Life
So What? Now What?

The Human Brain
How much of what you see, hear, feel,
experience, etc. are you aware of?
How much of what you do is under
conscious control?
How accurate is your judgment of what
you see, hear, feel, experience, etc.?
How fair minded are you?

“…the human mind takes in 11 million
bits of information every minute. But is
consciously aware of only 40.”
Timothy Wilson, University of Virginia
And since your brain cannot process 11
million bits of information a minute, it
takes mental shortcuts
The Human Brain

Mental Shortcuts Example
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!
Aodccrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it dnsoe't mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is
taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the hmuan mnid deos not raed ervey
lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Azmanig huh?

Mental Shortcuts Example

Our Limited Brain

Our Limited Brain
#1 #2 #3
SLB CFLTK CFLTK
SPRND HLMG CFLTK
SLB SPRND SLB
SPRND HLMG CFLTK

Our Limited Brain
#1 #2 #3
GREEN BLUE GREEN
RED YELLOW YELLOW
PURPLE BLUE RED
GREEN RED PURPLE

Our Limited Brain
#1 #2 #3
RED GREEN YELLOW
BLUE GREEN BROWN
RED YELLOW BLUE
BROWN BROWN BLUE

Our Assuming Brain

Facial Features and Skin Tones
Study by Daniel Levin and Mahzarin Banaji

Our Biased Brain

Implicit Bias
 An Implicit Bias is a preference for OR against a
person or group of people that operate at the
subconscious level. We are NOT aware that we
have them.
 Triggered automatically through rapid
association of people/groups/objects and our
attitudes AND stereotypes about them.
 Run contrary to our stated beliefs and attitudes.
We can say that we believe in equity (and truly
believe it). But then behave in ways that are
biased and discriminatory.

Implicit Association Test
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html

Implicit Bias in Daily Life
 Black Facial Features Prison Sentences
 Asians in Leadership
 Women in Leadership
 Black Boys as Older and Less Innocent
 Resume Studies
 Weight and Laziness

Implicit Bias in Daily Life

Process Break
What is interesting,
surprising, or thought
provoking about what you
have learned so far?

Implicit Bias at in Schools
 Undermining of Women in Leadership
 Questioning Qualifications of People of Color
 Correlation Between Race and Socioeconomics
 Dismissal of Mental Health Challenges
 Girls and Their Exercise of Leadership
 Black Assertion as Aggression or Defiance
 Talkativeness as Academic Excellence
 Linguistic Diversity as Intellectual Deficit

Process Break
What are the examples at
YOUR school? How do
they manifest in
outcomes for students,
families, and staff?

What Can We Do About It?
 Perspective Taking
 Increased, Meaningful, Inter-Group
Contact
 Stereotype Replacement
 Improvement of Decision Making
 Counting and Systematizing

http://ncase.me/polygons/

 Why am I feeling this way?
 Would I behave this way if the person
were…?
 What do I KNOW?
 What are my values?
 How do I behave according to my values?

Process Break
What are strategies you
can employ to lessen
occasions of assumptions
and differing treatment?
What are strategies you
can employ the when you
feel yourself falling into
these traps?

Moving from Professed Values
to Lived Values

Final Questions or Comments?

Presenter Information
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
6th Faculty and
Professional Outreach
Seattle Girls’ School
2706 S Jackson Street
Seattle WA 98144
(206) 805-6562
rlee@seattlegirlsschool.org
http://tiny.cc/rosettalee

Meridian School Unconscious and Implicit Bias

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