We Can Change Our Minds

My first encounter with brain research on bias was a talk entitled "Mind Bugs: The Science of Ordinary Bias," presented by Harvard researcher Mahzarin Banaji at Bates College in February 2010.

Banaji explained that as our brains categorize people into "like us" and "different from us," a universal function, we have "zero experience that this is happening." Because it's unconscious, we can't control the implicit bias that is the brain's method of imposing order.

What we can influence is what we tell the brain to do with that information. We can choose behaviors that are "in line with what we intend, not with our unconscious prejudices." "New methods for self-discovery are available," Banaji said, such as the Implicit Association Test, or IAT. "With these methods, anyone can line up behavior with intention." According to Banaji, we can "use our big, fat prefrontal cortex to decide: which biases do we want to keep?"

Our minds are shaped everyday by the associations we create. Our current society and culture is white-dominant. A constant exposure to such a diet will nurture White Mind. But we don't have to simply accept this status quo.

Banaji's advice: Choose models - books, music, movies, friends, images, etc - "that give you data contrary to what society is giving you." These models contradict and balance out the bias we're being fed and that our brains are forming. (It's a powerful argument for exposing children to books with positive images of all kinds of people, especially those who are often portrayed negatively or are invisible in the media; more about that in the next few posts.) As we change the associations in our minds, this will naturally flow into our behaviors, especially the unconscious ones of voice tone, facial expression and body language.



Even without testing, we can take inventory of our own lives. We can look at the choices we make - the books we read, the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the friends we hang out with and invite into our homes. Then ask ourselves, do the patterns of our lives match our intentions?

Tracking Everyday Bias

In late January I attended a fascinating Bates College lecture entitled "Mind Bugs: The Science of Everyday Bias," by Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard. She shared that brain research has now documented with conclusive evidence that bias is a universal human condition, and that testing shows a high degree of racial and gender bias (as well as many other types) in human brains (for instance, 80% of whites show bias for the white race).

Researchers can watch the brains of test subjects. When you think about people like you, they report, a certain part of your brain lights up; when you think about people different from you, a different part lights up. This kind of bias is completely unconscious, present in people who are absolutely positive they don't have it and who are committed to treating everyone fairly (and think they do). But it affects our actions, from hiring decisions to proscribing medications to book purchasing. The higher the degree of prejudice, the more it affects behavior.

To me, all this was great news. It give us the opportunity to get beyond the defensive arguments of whether or not bias is present (though some people will hold onto that forever), accept that it's in all of us (each of us with our own unique pattern), and get on with what to do about it. It's not a question of if you have bias, it's what yours looks like.

As Banaji said, you can discover from testing that "the data are coming out not in line with my conscious intention," realize that "you are shaping your mind and creating associations," and take responsibility for, literally, changing your mind.

At the Project Implicit website, you can "assess your conscious and unconscious preferences for over 90 different topics ranging from pets to political issues, ethnic groups to sports teams, and entertainers to styles of music," (joining the 12,000,000 people around the world who've offered themselves as subjects).