Introduction
We must understand that bias is a natural element of our psyche and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. But it can get us into trouble in certain circumstances.
The idea that we should ‘fight bias’ is misleading. It is our natural tendency to surrender to biases that we may now need to struggle against. So, we are ‘fighting’ our impulse to not be aware of the need for intentional choice, not bias itself. I will tell you a story.
In around 2003 I participated in a recruitment exercise for my department. My line manager (a man) convened our panel, and a woman was the independent. As the interviews progressed it was obvious that there were 2 stand-out candidates. One was a very attractive woman who used her attractiveness very effectively at the interview. On the face of things either candidate would have been suitable. It should have been an easy choice. Go for the very attractive one.
It was clear that the candidate expected to be offered the role. Her style and manner oozed confidence. She intended to manipulate the panel by activating our bias toward attractive people. My manager and I engaged in a poorly coded debate. We were both clearly taken by the very attractive candidate. We were trying not to make our reaction obvious to the independent, who sat there watching us with a bemused expression.
We males were conscious of the influence we were under and were determined to resist it. We debated about why we shouldn’t offer her the role on the logic that if we couldn’t find a reason not to make the offer, we’d have to make it. We found a reason not to, once our instinctual fog had dissipated.
This was an ethical struggle for us. We weren’t looking for a lover or a mate. We were recruiting on behalf of our department for a role for which sexual appeal was not a selection criterion. It wasn’t an easy choice because our male brains were drenched in hormones, and on a different mission to the one our public servant selves were on.
There’s nothing wrong with a bias toward very attractive people because there are many times when such attractiveness is beneficial. But we also know that such a bias can precipitate all kinds of strife.
Knowing when your biases are kicking in takes a fair degree of self-awareness because bias begins at an unconscious level and comes to the surface as feelings and beliefs that we are ready to justify and defend.
Some people talk of ‘unconscious bias’, but, for me, there isn’t any ‘conscious bias’ against which we can make a distinction. There can be, however, a conscious choice to abdicate personal responsibility and surrender to the urgings of our bias.
Thinking about what bias is
In essence bias is an energy efficient way of making choices. A bias is a set of givens created at a near instinctual level. We prefer those who are like us in as many ways as possible. This works well when we want mates or tribal members. But then we lay over those instincts a range of reflexes developed by cultural, religious or tribal identity.
Biases mean we don’t have to put time and energy into making choices about who is in our in-group and who is not. In large, complex and pluralistic communities being able to quickly rule people in or out of warranting our conscious consideration is necessary for our emotional health. Otherwise consciously processing so many choices would drain us. We have a psychological capacity for only so many people in our in-group. This is a bit like constant speed dating in nanoseconds.
But here’s where it can get ugly. Our reflexes developed by culture, religion, history, family and personal experience can be expressions of fear and loathing of groups of people who are not inherently dangerous.
I was born in Northern Ireland. My father was a devoted Protestant who loathed Catholics. As I grew up in Australia, he tried to convince me to inherit his loathing of Catholics. That didn’t work. I ended up not liking Protestants. When you live in a small country town as a kid people who try to divide you are more of a threat than people who are different (and possibly interesting). I had Catholic friends I couldn’t invite home.
Sadly, for many people, their sense of identity is built on reflexes that exclude others as threats to their cultural, spiritual or physical wellbeing. Here the problem isn’t the unconscious bias mechanism but the conscious defences of the bias-based reflexes that build our sense of identity.
Domains in which bias is active
The personal (self-interest)
Bais inherently serves our self-interest at the level of personal physical and psychological survival. We choose people who will enhance our chances and avoid those who will not. However, this is true only to the extent that we are psychologically healthy – and this raises a range of considerations too complex to deal with here. Suffice to say that we can develop biases that are harmful to us.
Social
Who we live with is less and less a choice we get to make. There was a time when a village was a community of people like us. Some small country towns may be largely still this way. But our larger urban centres less and less so. And when we get to cities, they are like microcosms reflecting the whole planet.
Our biases help us reduce the number of people we want/need to deal with consciously. But this is where the identity reflexes kick in and we can exclude others out of fear and loathing because of inherited or acquired beliefs, attitudes and values.
On the social level we are free to associate with whom we wish – to include or exclude. But whether we do so for reasons that are fair or reasonable, or by actions that are kind or respectful is presently a matter of our personal determination. There are some laws that limit how we treat other members of our communities, and there are influences within these communities which seek to set a positive tone of mutual respect, acceptance and inclusion. There are, sadly, other influences set on division and separation.
Organizational
Here things get complicated. Organisations are bound by laws and sometimes policies that seek to foster inclusion and ensure their workforces reflect the community in which the organisation operates. Compliance with these laws and policies is generally a condition of employment. Hence not letting one’s biases and reflexes influence one’s choices and behaviours at work is an ethical responsibility.
This is also where things get messy. The function of DEI strategies should be to assist an organisation’s workforce to become more self-aware of how biases and reflexes can violate their legal and moral obligations to its workforce and the community it serves. However, the ethical responsibility of an employee to comply with an organisation’s obligation is scarcely articulated at all, let alone in an unambiguous manner.
The result is confusion about rights and responsibilities.
Conclusion
We misunderstand bias because we see its adverse consequences in settings where it causes harm in 2 ways. It violates the obligations upon the individual being biased and it injures the opportunities of the person subject to bias. Mostly we think in organisational terms where nobody has clearly articulated what obligations and rights are placed upon members of a workforce.
The upshot is a muddle of moral sentiments fuelled by well-intended passions but misguided by flawed understanding of what bias is. To make matters worse the question of accountability is left hanging in a fog of sentiments about moral imperatives rather than obligations.
In sum, bias is natural and normal and good. But in some circumstances, it can morph into toxic and harmful beliefs, attitudes and behaviours when the normal bias process creates identity reflexes.
In an organisational context staff have two obligations. The first is to be sufficiently self-aware to ensure self-interest biases do not influence decisions made as a representative of the organisation. The second is to ensure that bias-based identity reflexes do not influence one’s conduct as a co-worker or as a representative of the organization.
Neither is an easy ask on a personal level. But both are ethical obligations as a member of a workforce. They are not ‘asks’ on a personal level.