The concept of implicit bias is a “ bias that occurs when someone consciously rejects stereotypes and supports anti-discrimination efforts but also holds negative associations in his/her mind unconsciously” ( Roberts, 2011). The concept implies that people may exhibit stereotypes. Yet, they do not understand that they are acting in a manner that discriminates other people based on their traits that place them at a specific minority group in society. In this article, therefore, the discussion supports the fact that people can act unconscious, yet they do not understand or know the intent of their actions. The arguments are, therefore, that implicit bias is evident in society, and it is one of the reasons that perpetuates immorality and discrimination among different people in the world.
One of the disadvantages of the implicit bias is that it affects how people act with people of another race Roberts (2011). Take, for instance, a situation of co-workers in workplaces. If the person has a strong implicit bias against someone whom they belong to the same team, there is the likeliness that such a person may not give the best of the work mostly in case where the person associates the minority individual with poor work performance. The only advantage of the implicit bias is when such a situation is reverse. In this sense, a person co-workers can make more effort to impress a group when they have a strong implicit bias or associate people in the team with high performance. For instance, if a team of coworkers has more Japanese than Americans, the American can strive to give their best in a case where they think that the Japanese are always hard workers.
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Implicit bias is also likely to create a situation that can lead to discrimination to a specific group. For instance, take school administrators that are responsible for chairing a committee that looks into creating policies and making a decision that runs the school. If the person has high implicit bias, the person is likely to suffer from what Roberts (2011) describes as Stereotype threat. Anxiety threat, according to Roberts (2011), is “a person’s anxiety or fear that their performance on a difficult task will confirm a negative stereotype about their group.” With fear of people thinking they discriminative, persons can either make a decision that hinders the growth of the minority within the schools or improve the performance. Fearing the negative judgments of people belonging to their race or group, the person can make a decision that hurt the minority. However, the pro is that such people may also make right decisions when they feel that the outcome of their choice may be used to judge their intellect or the capabilities of the group to which they belong.
Policymakers that directly affect the school can also suffer the effect of the implicit bias, and this can have both positive and negative consequences in the process of policymaking. Roberts (2011) states argue that “Because the vast majority of people consider racism to be immoral they will be highly resistant to any message that suggests that they or people like them are racist or biased.” Therefore, implicit bias can be advantageous in that it can encourage people to make good policies that show how ethically conscious they are, and this may boost inclusiveness policies in the school. However, the stereotype fears factor can also play a part among such people and make them come up with discriminative policies due to the fear that those who belong to the same group as them can judge them wrongly based on their actions.
Therefore, it is evident that implicit bias can have both positive and negative impacts on co-workers, administrators and even the policymakers in a school or any other organisation. As Roberts argues in the article, bias is associated with immorality and therefore, people would like to distance themselves with the outcome of biasness. Such fear has a role in manipulating the actions and decisions people make so that the result of such actions reflects less the reality of their actin or choices.
Reference
Roberts, H. (2011). Implicit Bias and Social Justice. Open Society Foundations .
