the influence of everyday bias · the influence of everyday bias denise williams, phd, ms, sphr,...

The Influence of Everyday Bias

Denise Williams, PhD, MS, SPHR, SHRM-SP Staff/Patient Equity and Inclusion Consultant UMHS Office for Health Equity and Inclusion denisefw@med.umich.edu

Carmeda Stokes, PhD Senior Project Manager UHR Strategy & Planning meda@.umich.edu

Today’s Topics

What Is Bias? How Bias Affects Decision Making Techniques to Mitigate Bias

McGurk Effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFPtc8BVdJk

What Is Bias?

What is Bias?

A tendency or inclination that results in judgment

without question.

A shortcut to interact

with our world An automatic response

Mental associations without:

• Awareness • Intention • Control

These often conflict with our conscious

attitudes, behaviors, and intentions.

What is Unconscious Bias?

Karl Dallenbach

Whodunnit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNF9QNEQLA

As you look at the following slides, note the feelings, judgments, and reactions that emerge.

LOW…. Hold up BLUE card

HIGH…. Hold up MAIZE card

Gender Skin tone

Setting

Body type

Body posture

Clothing

Facial expression

Ethnicity

Age

What patterns do you notice?

John Fetterman • Mayor of Braddock, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh) Tattoo= Zip Code • Has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard • Served in the Americorps • Received international media attention for the economic revitalization

programming he started in his community

Pratibha Patil • Economist • Attorney • First female

president of India, 2007-2012

TED BUNDY • Serial Killer

and Rapist • Confessed to

killing 30 women

Oxana Federova • Miss Universe 2002 • Fashion model • Russian police

captain • PhD in civil law

Mae Jemison • Physician • Professor • U.S.

Astronaut

Perceptions

Interpretations

Preferences

Selective Attention 11 million pieces of

information at any one

time

40-50 pieces of information get

absorbed

Source: T. Norretranders, The User Illusion. Trans. J. Sydenham (New York: Viking, 1998), cited in Timothy Wilson, Strangers to

Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), 24.

Culture

Group

Culture

Group

Individual

Culture

Group

Individual

Culture

Institutional

ME YOU

How Bias Effects Decision Making

Trafton Drew, Harvard Medical School, 2013

83% of Radiologists who were asked to search for cancer nodules, did not

notice the gorilla in the top right hand portion of this

image!

The Bargh Studies

Height Bias

(Gladwell, 2015)

Average American Male

5’9”

Average CEO 6’0” Men 6 feet or taller 14.5% CEOs 6 feet or taller 58% Men 6’2” or taller 3.9% CEOS 6’2” or taller 30%

“Big Five Orchestral Audition Study”

Orchestrating Impartiality: the Impact of “Blind” Auditions on Female Musicians, 94 Am. Econ. Rev. 715 (2000).

Hurricane Research

Kiju Jung et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 2013https://encryptedtbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRblMGeghpIcd8Y9K3QouuZNdnHr2ypKiMnNuBBdAtAYQMELxUXwA

Has This Ever Happened To You?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCrMEOqHpc

Small Group Activity “Fed Ex Stolen Idea”

Discuss: What were the power dynamics in the room? How do you think these dynamics affect how

decisions are made in our work environments? Share your findings with the larger group

Techniques to Mitigate Bias

A Simple Math Problem

• Start with 1,000 • Add 40 • Add another thousand • Add 30 • Add another thousand • Add 20 • Add another thousand • Add 10 • Answer?

– 4,100

SLB CFLTK CFLTK

SPRND HLMG CFLTK

SLB SPRND SLB

SPRND HLMG CFLTK

HLMG SPRND CFLTK

John Ridley Stroop, 1935

RED GREEN YELLOW

BLUE GREEN BROWN

PURPLE YELLOW BLUE

BROWN BROWN BLUE

YELLOW GREEN RED

John Ridley Stroop, 1935

Catalyzing person or

circumstance

Background

Fast (Emotional)

Brain

Slow (Thinking)

Brain

Height Sexual Orientation

Appearance

Weight

Accent

Skin Tone Hand Dominance

Race

Gender

Name

Religion

Disability Which biases are

ours?

Communication Style

Age

Education

Six Ways to Reduce Bias

Ask for feedback

Engage with people you

consider “others” Explore awkwardness

and discomfort

Recognize and accept you have

bias Develop the capacity to use a

flashlight on yourself

Practice “Constructive Uncertainty”

WRAP-UP: “Start, Stop, Continue”