The United States has made tremendous strides in promoting equality and fairness. Today, women and minorities who previously suffered marginalization enjoy unprecedented access to opportunities for advancement. However, there are some factors that continue to hamper progress. Implicit bias is among these. Essentially, this is the type of bias that is not deliberate or malicious. It can be regarded as innocent. While implicit bias may be unintended, its consequences are clear and devastating. This bias has been blamed for poor health outcomes in healthcare. If society is to make gains in promoting justice, it must tackle implicit bias in all its forms.
The entire society witnesses the damaging effects of implicit bias. A number of researchers have examined the impact of implicit bias on healthcare. For instance, Chapman, Kaatz and Carnes (2013) investigated the manifestation of implicit bias in the delivery of medical services. According to these scholars, implicit bias is indeed a real problem and its impacts are mainly adverse. They note that when practitioners are biased, they hamper the delivery of services to underserved and marginalized populations. For example, they caution that implicit bias may cause physicians to allow stereotypes to color their judgment and impede the diagnostic process. Chapman and her colleagues add that implicit bias can also take the form of physicians relying too heavily on their own judgment and wisdom when dealing with populations. Bryne and Tanesini (2015) are other scholars who observed that implicit bias has a damaging effect on healthcare. They state that minority patients receive care of low quality due to implicit bias among physicians. The observations that the different scholars make suggest that the entire society suffers the impacts of implicit bias. However, minority and marginalized groups bear the brunt of the suffering. A society whose members do not receive adequate care is likely to experience such hardships as poor economic performance and an unproductive population. If societies wish to safeguard their wellbeing, they should take steps to tackle implicit bias.
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The impacts of implicit bias go beyond fueling health disparities. This bias has also been blamed for limiting the advancement of disadvantaged groups such as women. Golbeck (2015) lament that female faculty members in statistics departments face challenges in becoming leaders and being mentored. As a result, these women are unable to achieve their full potential. The main culprit for the struggles that these women endure is implicit bias. Golbeck suggests that if society fails to invest in the advancement of women and other marginalized communities, it hampers its own development. Women make significant contributions to societal growth and when their development is impeded, they are unable to fuel the growth of their communities. Therefore, societies should be aggressive in their efforts to eliminate implicit bias.
The media is among the parties that have been involved in fueling implicit bias. One of the ways it has fanned this bias is by perpetuating stereotypes. For example, available on YouTube is a commercial for Heineken. In this commercial, women are seen as being fascinated by shoes. The women in the video scream at the sight of a closet full of shoes (HeinekenWalkInFridge, 2008). On the other hand, the video presents men as having their interests in beer. While this commercial was designed for entertainment and to promote a product, it is an example of implicit bias. Its portrayal of women and men is inappropriate and unacceptable. This commercial reduces women to individuals who are easily excitable by shoes. It could do serious damage to the progress that has been made in reclaiming the image of women as powerful individuals with the intelligence and strength to lead their communities.
References
Byrne, A., & Tanesini, A. (2015). Instilling new habits: addressing implicit bias in healthcare professionals. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 20 (5), 1255-62.
Chapman, E. N., Kaatz, A., & Carnes, M. (2013). Physicians and implicit bias: how doctors may unwittingly perpetuate health care disparities. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 28 (11), 504-10.
Golbeck, A. L. (2015). Mentoring faculty women in statistics: exploring challenges and opportunities for leadership development. The American Statistician, 71 (1), 47-54.
HeinekenWalkInFridge. (2008). NEW Heineken Commercial - verry funny. YouTube. Retrieved February 7, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZZreXEqSY
