How to Identify—and Counteract—Your Own Unconscious Bias at Work with the Most Popular Course of the Year (watch for free)

Over the last year, a wave of consciousness woke many of us from our collective slumber. It became glaringly clear that in addition to a global pandemic, we had another pervasive problem on our hands: systemic and structural unconscious bias. 

Unconscious bias refers to the automatic (and unconscious) attitudes, stereotypes, and thinking that affect our views, our actions, and our decision-making ability. It impacts hiring, recruiting, evaluation, and promotion processes. It contributes to the lack of workplace diversity. And it widens the opportunity gap, where women and people of color are underrepresented in leadership positions.  

As individuals and workplaces increasingly shine a light on unconscious bias, it makes sense that professionals are taking courses to help them have conversations to impact micro and macro change toward equity in the workplace. This year, my course Unconscious Bias topped LinkedIn Learning’s list of this year's 20 Most Popular Courses. 

By understanding that we're all biased, we can make the decision to work together to be more conscious of our thoughts and actions when relating to others. And while we can't always stop ourselves in the moment, we can think about our actions to see why we chose a particular person for a task or put a specific individual on a team, and then, if need be, remedy that situation. 

Over time, it's possible to learn to think and behave differently. To help you along the way, let’s look at how to recognize and counteract five types of unconscious bias. Watch the full course for free on LinkedIn Learning until October 15, 2021. 

Affinity bias

Affinity bias is the tendency to warm up to people like ourselves. A parent, for example, may favor the child they can most relate to: the one who plays the same sport they did in high school, or the one who has their creative genes.

At work, this type of unconscious bias can come out during performance reviews. You may rate an employee who went to your alma mater much higher than someone you have little to no connection with. Unconsciously, the person with whom you have a perceived affinity will automatically have an edge over the others, whether they deserve it or not. 

You can reduce your unconscious bias at work by creating standard processes that will help you to pause before you take a potentially biased action. For example, in a review process, consider whether your comments are based on objective facts or subjective feelings. Think about a structure you can apply to everyone to lessen the influence of bias in your decision making. Standardization also slows down the process so that you can replace your automatic and unconscious gut reaction with methodical and deliberate action. 

Halo bias

The “halo effect” is our tendency to think everything about a person is good because our first impression of them was good. 

To help make sure you’re looking at people through unbiased eyes, ask yourself: Who wears the halo in your office? Is there anything you can do about it? Are you in an environment where grievances are taken seriously? And if not, can you lobby for change? Review your own process for evaluating work and put checks and balances in place. 

Perception bias

The University of North Carolina Executive Development Program defines perception bias as the tendency to form stereotypes and assumptions about certain groups that makes it difficult to make an objective judgment about individual members of those groups. For example, let’s say you have an experience with a child who is a Boy Scout, who is kind, generous, polite, and helpful. When you meet another child who is also a Boy Scout, you might have a difficult time seeing any of their negative traits. 

According to a study led by researcher Moss-Racusin, and published in the proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences, there is an assumption that men are better suited to science and technology-related projects than women. If you’re hiring for a data scientist and eight out of 10 candidates are male, it's difficult to put aside the perception that men do these types of jobs, and hire a woman instead. If the bias is based on a stereotype rather than fact, the act of overlooking underrepresented groups of people will continue.

The next time you make a statement about someone, ask yourself if that statement is based in fact. It might be factual that all of the engineers in your department are male, but is that a fact that you want to remain unchanged? Remaining curious and questioning assumptions is a great way to keep our minds sharp and our actions unbiased.

Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is described by Harvard Business Review as seeking out evidence that confirms our initial perceptions and ignoring contrary information. It's a little like a debate. Each side prepares for their argument with facts, figures, and studies that will support their position. And they'll disregard or find fault with the opposing viewpoint to win the debate. Confirmation bias can make a bad situation worse because we double down and dig in our heels. We seek out information and evidence that justifies our position or makes us feel like we were right all along. 

To combat confirmation bias, we need to review ALL of the data we have in our possession. Review the pros and the cons to objectively make a decision based on both sides of the data. Look for data that disproves your point and ask others to review your conclusions. Developing and using a standard system of evaluation applies to all aspects of the business, from launching new products, to evaluating employees, to allocating funds for different departments. Without data we’re subject to the whims of our mood that day and our gut instinct about people, which, if you've been paying attention, is highly subjective and unconsciously influenced.

Groupthink

For most people, high school was a time of desperately trying to fit in. And if you were considered part of the “in” crowd, you might’ve spent most of your time trying to stay there. You may have found yourself agreeing with things your friends said or did because you thought everyone else did too, and you didn't want to stick out. This bandwagon effect, or groupthink, is instinctual and occurs when individuals try too hard to fit into a group by agreeing with the majority, or by stifling opinions that may differ from the group. And it can lead us to make grave mistakes. 

When people are willing to “go along to get along,” creativity and independent thought can fly right out the window, and you end up with a pool of people who may have all agreed with an idea, even though those in the room knew that idea was terrible. 

Being aware of these five types of unconscious bias can help you make rational, unbiased decisions that furthers equity in the workplace. To learn more about shift your own unconscious bias, check out my course, Unconscious Bias on LinkedIn Learning, free through October 15, 2021.