Implicit Bias Education Programs: A Comprehensive Overview

Introduction

In recent decades, organizations have increasingly turned to implicit bias education programs as a means to address discrimination and foster equity. These programs, also known as unconscious bias training or anti-bias training, aim to raise awareness of unconscious biases and mitigate their impact. Implicit biases are societal stereotypes that individuals unconsciously form about groups of people, separate from their own conscious awareness. While the effectiveness of these programs is debated, they remain a widespread approach to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Understanding Implicit Bias

Implicit biases are automatic reactions towards other people based on past learning and expectations. These biases, also referred to as unconscious biases, are societal stereotypes that individuals unconsciously form about groups of people, separate from their own conscious awareness. Some biases may appear small but have a big impact on society. Researchers have attributed many disparities to implicit bias, like the gender pay gap, police use of force on communities of color, and health disparities. Alongside institutional structures and policies, many scholars say employees’ implicit biases can contribute to instances of discrimination and racism in the workplace.

The brain uses shortcuts and schemas to process stimuli, which can lead to the formation of attitudes, stereotypes, and biases. Implicit bias training is based on the methodology in social psychology that an individual’s response time when presented with 2 images reveals how closely the viewer unconsciously connects the two.

The Goal of Implicit Bias Training

The core goal of these trainings is to support people in acknowledging their own unconscious racial biases, with the understanding that awareness of how racism impacts one’s behavior and decisions at an unconscious level is the first step in changing behavior. Implicit bias training provides healthcare providers with important insights to recognize and remedy implicit bias.

Examples of Implicit Bias Education Programs

Several organizations and institutions offer implicit bias education programs. Here are a few examples:

The UC Managing Implicit Bias Series: This six-course online training series is designed to increase awareness of implicit bias and reduce its impact at the University of California. The series reinforces the UC diversity, equity, and inclusion values that enable the University to attract and retain a top talent workforce, and it further supports the UC commitment to developing effective leaders and managers of people. Employees may complete individual courses, or the entire series. Those who complete all six online courses through the UC Learning Center will receive the UC Systemwide HR Managing Implicit Bias Certificate. The series will also be added as a core requirement to the existing UC Systemwide People Management Series and Certificate. The series contains the following six self-paced, online interactive courses.
NRMN Unconscious Bias Course: The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) provides researchers across all career stages in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical and social sciences with the evidence-based mentorship and professional development programming that emphasizes the benefits and challenges of diversity, inclusivity and culture. The NRMN Unconscious Bias Course will help you address your personal unconscious bias, teach you about microaggressions, provide a solutions toolkit, develop your self-awareness, and discuss bias and disparities in medicine and health care. A certificate is awarded upon completion of these modules. The course may be completed all at once or each module may be taken separately. There is no set completion window, but all five modules must be completed to receive credit for the course.
Government of Canada's Online Unconscious Bias Training Module: This online unconscious bias training module explains what unconscious bias is, outlines how it can affect the peer review process, and suggests ways to mitigate the influence of unconscious bias.
NFHS Implicit Bias Course: Studies show that Implicit Bias affects the experiences of students in school athletic and activity programs. The NFHS has partnered with Project Implicit to bring you this course, Implicit Bias. Studies support that there is a relationship between implicit bias and real-world behavior, which highlights the importance of being aware of and managing your bias. The NFHS Learning Center offers a 3-level national coaching credential that helps you gain knowledge you can use to provide a fun, educational, and a safer environment for your students. This national credential was developed for individuals who are currently coaching or aspire to coach at the interscholastic level.
ACS Virtual Session: This learning program engages learners with each other about implicit biases and how those biases contribute to racial disproportionality in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice systems - strengthening ACS’s practices to support children and families starts from within the individual. During this virtual session, learners deepen their understanding and discuss the influences of implicit bias on institutional racism and structural inequity. Learners also practice strategies to reduce implicit bias and enhance equitable decision making in their work. The New York City Administration for Children’s Services is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0402. This course is 5.5 contact hours/0.55 CEUs.
March of Dimes Implicit Bias Training: March of Dimes is working to mitigate bias among maternal and infant healthcare professionals and to promote better outcomes for pregnant and postpartum people, newborns, and their families through education and action. Our implicit bias training was offered to 30,000 healthcare professionals to increase awareness and stimulate action in care settings nationwide. We also had training on topics such as reducing stigma in the care of women with maternal mental health and substance use disorders; care practices to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality; and strategies to improve care and outcomes in the NICU. Sites will also receive a Simulation Facilitator's Guide.

Components of Effective Programs

While the science in this area is advancing, research currently suggests that the best bias-reduction programs will:

Educate participants on bias.
Encourage counterstereotypic thinking.
Provide strategies they can apply in their daily lives.

Effectiveness of Implicit Bias Training

The effectiveness of implicit bias training is a subject of ongoing debate. The short answer is not really. Many studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that anti-bias training does not reduce bias, alter behavior, or improve the workplace. The fact is: implicit bias has been learned over a lifetime of media exposure and experiences, and short-term interventions, such as diversity training, simply don’t change those attitudes and behaviors. Further, organizations tend to rely solely on anti-bias training as a core part of their DEI programming, which risks inflating their confidence in their efforts and leading to complacency to address discrimination in their organizations.

Evidence of Limited Impact

There is not broad consensus among researchers about whether we can truly alter one’s implicit biases. The majority of studies on modifying implicit associations only look at short-term results. When examining the effect of implicit bias training, it is critical to ask: Does training reduce implicit preferences and bias, and if so, are the reductions in bias tenable?

Potential for Improvement

Though implicit bias training in its current form is not always effective, the model can be improved. Research suggests that implicit bias interventions may be more impactful when introduced in early childhood. Instead of attempting to change implicit bias, it is recommended that strategists focus on school settings where children learn values. Some scholars suggest that reframing implicit bias training could be effective.

Studies Showing Potential for Change

Despite the criticisms, some studies suggest that implicit bias training can lead to positive changes.

A 2012 study by Dr. Patricia Devine and colleagues examined if implicit bias is similar to a bad habit that can be broken through a combination of awareness, concern about the bias, and the utilization of strategies to take action and reduce the bias. In the study, all participants completed explicit bias survey measures (e.g., The Implicit Association Test (IAT)) across a twelve-week period. About half of the participants also watched a forty-five minute interactive training while the other half did not receive any training. This allowed researchers to examine if the training reduced measured bias. As compared to those without the training, participants who received the training showed reductions in implicit preferences, in four and eight weeks after the training. In addition, these participants showed an increased awareness of real-world bias and were more concerned with discrimination and prejudice. These findings offered initial evidence that bias-reduction training could lead to change at least two months later.
In one particularly informative study, Dr. Calvin Lai and colleagues investigated seventeen different interventions that sought to reduce implicit racial preferences. The researchers used pre- and post-test measures of implicit and explicit bias to examine potential changes. They found that eight of the seventeen interventions generally reduced implicit preferences (for Whites, as compared to Blacks). The most effective intervention, Vivid Counterstereotypic Scenario, used personal reflection and a story that countered racial stereotypes. For example, participants read a story of a White man assaulting them and a Black man coming to their rescue. Across four separate studies, the researchers found that the counterstereotypic story reduced implicit preferences. The effect increased when more intense stories and photos were added to the experiment.

Fluctuations in Implicit Bias Scores

More recent research published in 2019 re-examined prior findings from Dr. Lai and colleagues' 2016 research article. The researchers found that while average IAT scores across the examined campus samples generally returned to the same levels after the intervention, individuals' implicit bias scores fluctuated.

Strategies to Reduce the Effects of Implicit Bias

In 2012, the National Center for State Courts reviewed strategies to reduce the influence of implicit bias and convened discussions with judges and judicial educators. The resulting report identified risk factors that might increase bias (e.g., heightened emotional states) and strategies to reduce the effects of implicit bias (e.g., raising awareness, routine monitoring, and identifying triggers to remove or reduce implicit biases).

Implicit Bias in Specific Contexts

Healthcare

Unconscious bias training is based on the methodology in social psychology that an individual’s response time when presented with 2 images reveals how closely the viewer unconsciously connects the two. Implicit bias training provides healthcare providers with important insights to recognize and remedy implicit bias. Implicit biases are the automatic reactions we have toward other people based on our past learning and expectations.

Athletics

Studies show that Implicit Bias affects the experiences of students in school athletic and activity programs. Studies support that there is a relationship between implicit bias and real-world behavior, which highlights the importance of being aware of and managing your bias.

Read also: Inclusion in Learning Environments

tags: #implicit #bias #education #programs