Implicit bias, stereotype threat and
leadership issues
j.saul@sheffield.ac.uk
Gender gaps




Low numbers of women in Science, Engineering,
Mathematics. Also in certain Arts and Social sciences
subjets.
Low numbers of women at the top in almost every
field
Pay gaps (UK): Overall 18.6% less/hour.
More women at the bottom: much higher rates of
female poverty
Explanations




Innate, unchangeable psychological differences? Could be,
but there are good reasons for doubt. (See esp. Cordelia
Fine, Delusions of Gender)
Difficulty combining work and childcare? Surely an issue, but
can’t explain why there are so many more women in
literature or law than in science or philosophy.
Conscious, old-fashioned sexism? Still exists, but not so
widespread.
But there’s very good reason to believe that unconscious
psychological phenomena are playing a role. These also
play a key role in holding back members of other and
overlapping stigmatised groups– racial and ethnic groups,
disabled people, etc.
Two phenomena


Implicit Biases: those that we will be concerned with here are unconscious
biases that affect the way we perceive, evaluate, or interact with people
from the groups that our biases “target”.
Stereotype Threat: people’s awareness of their group membership may
(often unconsciously) have a negative impact on their performance.
Implicit Bias


Arises from our very useful tendency to make fast associations.
Psychological research over the last decades has shown that most people-- even
those who explicitly and sincerely avow egalitarian views-- hold what have been
described as implicit biases against such groups as blacks, women, gay people,
and so on.
Example: Race IAT (US)
Importantly…


These are often contrary to genuinely held
commitments.
They are held even by members of the target
group.
Try an IAT

Go to Project Implicit on the web, make sure you
select right country.
Bias in action: teaching


More likely to call on male students, more likely to
charitably interpret their inchoate contributions.
More likely to take point raised by a woman
seriously if re-stated by a man.
© The University of Sheffield
13/04/2015
Bias in action: marking

Non-anonymous marking and gender:
anonymous marking leads to higher marks for
women (Bradley 1984, 1993)
Letters of Reference







Man: “brilliant”; “outstanding”; “original”
Woman:
“works hard”
“friendly”
“surprisingly successful”
“very attractive”
“friends with my wife”
© The University of Sheffield
13/04/2015
Women and leadership
Women and leadership
Bias in action: Hiring

CVs: Same CV, with different names
 John
more employable than Jane.
 John more employable than Yasser.
 Add indication of parenthood– helps men,
Harms women
Dying out? No: Shown 2012. Effect equally
Strong for men and women, of all ages.
Bias in action: citation

2013 study
 Of
faculty members at research universities, the
average paper by an untenured male in international
relations is cited 26.7 times, while the average paper
by a female colleague at same level would be cited
only 2.15 times.
Bias in action: shooter bias

Subjects (including police) more likely to “shoot”
black person carrying harmless object than white
person. (Task is to “shoot” quickly if person in
image is carrying a gun.)
Implicit bias results in injustice
Examples:
People not receiving the marks that they should
Hiring not based on merit
Innocent people being shot
BLAME?


Unconscious, automatic, not subject to direct
control, contrary to genuine egalitarian
commitments. People often do not know what
to do to prevent bias/bias effects, even if they are
aware that they may have biases.
So (I think) not subject to blame in the same way
as conscious bias.
STEREOTYPE THREAT

Underperformance on particular tasks by
members of groups stigmatised as less good at
these tasks, when
 They
really care about doing well
 Stakes are high
 They are reminded of their group membership
Stereotype threat

Women who are reminded of their gender (by
ticking a gender box, or by being surrounded by
men). taking a high-stakes math test, will
underperform.
Stereotype threat

Black men taking tests “of academic ability” will
underperform.
Stereotype threat
White men at Ivy League universities doing tests of
athletic ability will underperform if reminded of
their race.
Stereotype threat
5-7 year old girls will do worse on a math test if
they take it after colouring in a picture of a girl with
a doll.
Stereotype threat in action

With exactly the same talent and dedication, it
will be harder for members of some social
groups to perform well: UNJUST.

Many people will fail to perform as well as they
otherwise might.

Society will not have the benefit of the full
contributions that some groups might make.
Implicit bias and stereotype threat in
action



Members of stigmatised groups have a more
difficult time being given proper credit for what they
do and also a more difficult time doing as well as
they can.
Members of stigmatised groups will be less likely to
be perform as well as they can, to be fairly assessed,
to be encouraged, to be mentored, to be hired, to
be paid fairly….
And– although there is in fact still conscious, explicit
bias– much of this will be the result of unconscious
bias from people with genuine egalitarian
commitments.
Our moral position


We are, very likely, being influenced by biases
that we find abhorrent.
We are, very likely, acting in ways that:
 Are
based in values we reject
 Have harmful effects on others (and perhaps on
ourselves)
 Perpetuate racism, sexism and other injustices
 Are unfair
Our epistemic position (what this means for
knowledge)


Before learning about implicit biases, we don’t
know that we are likely to be doing these things.
Even once we learn about implicit biases, we
don’t know when they are influencing what we
do.
Our epistemic position

These biases can affect us even when we are thinking
about things on which we are experts:

Prestige bias: Papers already published in top journals sent
to them again, but with unprestigious (little-known)
university affiliations for the authors.
Rejected.
For serious methodological errors.
Our epistemic position



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When psychologists make mistakes like this,
they’re making mistakes about something they
know well– methodology.
These mistaken evaluations are being influenced
by totally irrelevant factors.
They’re being influenced by factors that the
psychologists would find repugnant.
This is all happening totally outside their
awareness.
Our epistemic position


Yes, but everyone makes mistakes! That’s part
of our self-conception.
Mistakes like there are not part of our selfconception.
Traditional Philosophical Problem: Scepticism

Sceptical arguments, traditionally, get us to think
about some possibility that we can’t rule out.
Then they get us to move from that to the
thought that we really don’t know (for example)
that anything around us is real.
Traditional scepticism


Doesn’t really worry anyone.
We don’t really have a reason to take the sceptical
doubts seriously.
Implicit Bias Scepticism

Learning about implicit bias tells us that we
almost certainly are making mistakes.

So stronger than traditional forms.

Not mistaken about everything. But a lot, and
stuff that we were pretty confident of.
Implicit Bias Scepticism

But traditional scepticism is quite sweeping.

Doubt induced by implicit bias less so– e.g. could not
make us worry about whether the external world
exists.

It’s local scepticism, not global. But it’s local
scepticism where the boundaries are uncertain–
there are so many areas in which social identity
could be affecting us, and so many of our beliefs
might have been affected.
Demand for action

Traditional scepticism: not really.

Implicit bias scepticism: strong demand.
Acting: What not to do



Don’t just tell yourself “don’t be biased”. This
can backfire and make it worse.
Don’t think about a past time when you (think
that you) managed to be unbiased. This can
backfire and make it worse.
Don’t tell yourself not to see gender and race.
(Again, backfires.)
Acting: what only sort of works

Putting women on hiring committees in order
ensure gender fairness.
 Women, like
men, are very likely to hold negative
implicit biases against women. So won’t help with
implicit bias.
 However: can help candidates not to suffer from
such serious stereotype threat while being
interviewed.
 But note: One woman probably won’t be enough.
Acting: what works for implicit bias

Anonymise whenever possible.
What works

Spend some time thinking about
counterstereotypical exemplar….
Acting: what works

Get more counterstereotypical exemplars in.
 In
my own field, philosophy (75-80% male) I argue
not just for hiring more women, but also putting
women on reading lists, inviting them to speak, etc.
 Put
their pictures up.
Objection to adding counterstereotypical
exemplars

But that means basing one’s judgments (in part)
on something other than merit!
 Our
judgments are already (in part) based on
something other than merit: they are based partly
on social prejudices.
What works

Being hungry, tired and rushed increases manifestation
of implicit bias.
What works


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Agree on criteria in advance.
Don’t put too much weight on one thing (e.g. job
talk).
Get feedback on each element as you go, to avoid
overall gestalt evaluation.
Acting: what works for implicit bias

Spend some time thinking about past instances
where you were biased.
What works

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Try harder to notice when a woman student wants to
speak.
If a woman’s comment is being ignored, or attributed
to someone else, speak up.
Perhaps: adopt an affirmative action policy in chairing
discussions.
Re-examine your letters of reference for gendered
content.
Cite women.
Acting: what works for stereotype
threat

Think about a group one is a member of which is
not negatively stereotyped. (E.g. people at
Russell Group university.)
What works


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Stereotype threat: sharing stories of those who
have succeeded despite it.
Stereotype threat: talk about it as a possible source
of anxiety.
Stereotype threat: values affirmation.
Notice…


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Many of these ways of countering our biases
really require scientists to discover them.
What we’d most naturally think of to do doesn’t
work, and some strange things do.
To fix our cognitive instruments we first have to
accept that they are faulty, and that we need
some expert help.
Standard picture of bias
 Standard
picture of bias is one on which the biased
people are very obviously and consciously racist and
sexist.
 Easy
to distance oneself from these people, and reflect
in relief on one’s lack of bias.


Need to reject this, and accept ubiquity.
But Importantly: this doesn’t mean we’re terrible,
racist people.
Bias as blameless
 This
is the picture we must reject: many biases are both
unconscious and blameless.
 Many
people are totally unaware of their implicit biases and the
effects that they have.
 Even after becoming aware, people are likely to not know how to
combat them.
So blame is not appropriate
Bias as blameworthy

Bias becomes blameworthy if people learn about
implicit bias and don’t try to do anything to change.