27. Can I unlearn a lifetime of bias?
Researchers are attempting to neutralize hard-wired, implicit biases that affect everyone. Can we really "unlearn" a lifetime worth of racial bias?
This week I went to a school district to deliver a half-day training on implicit bias and school discipline for educators.
This is not the first training I have delivered on implicit bias, in fact, I’ve spent years exploring this topic alongside dedicated researchers and educators from across the US.
Overall, I‘ve found implicit racial biases are easier to talk about (in theory) but much harder to lessen their effects in practice. For example, in schools, black students are still disciplined at much higher rates than their white peers for the exact same behaviors. Discipline disparities have persisted for decades, despite the arrival of more inclusive school practices and policies. Although there are many causes for discipline disparities, implicit racial bias has become a target for researchers and school leaders aiming to level the playing field in education.
Unlearning
I’ve seen the term “unlearning” brought up in training, books & studies on implicit bias. Unlearning makes intuitive sense until I stop to consider how on earth do we unlearn stuff. Do I selectively screen out ingrained responses or thoughts when they pop up? Can I slow down my thinking enough to act or thing differently? How can I make myself more aware of implicit or unconscious impulses? Well, as it turns out, scientists are exploring many of these questions right now.
Author, Michael Lewis wrote a book called The Undoing Project recounting the lives & work of two researchers devoted to understanding how different forms of bias affect us. The book tells the story of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky who together invented the field of behavioral economics. A main theme of Kahneman’s and Tversky’s research is that people feel their motivation is one way, but scientific testing has shown that in practice, humans are incredibly easy to influence. In other words, we are highly susceptible to making biased decisions that don’t reflect our values or intentions. In a similar vein, Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, draws on Kahneman and Tversky’s work to dissect the choices we make in an instant.
Unlearning also pops up in related forms such as, “debiasing”, “erasing”, or “resetting”. All of these terms communicate a similar idea — letting go, reducing, or replacing attitudes, responses, or behaviors we picked up at some point in our lives that can cloud our judgment and perception of the world around us.
Unlearning unconscious behaviors is a tricky business.
It’s hard to see the effects of implicit racial biases until we zoom out and can see the bigger picture. We also don’t like to think of ourselves as perpetuating discrimination and exclusion, especially in places such as schools, hospitals, or our local coffee shop (note: social desirability bias presents its own challenges).
Researcher, Beverly Daniel Tatum compared implicit racial bias to smog — “It’s the air we breathe,” she said.
Before moving on, here’s a quick and dirty overview of implicit bias (feel free to skip ahead if this is familiar territory for you).
Below the level of consciousness
Dr. Mahzarin Banaji is a professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University. Banaji & her colleague, Anthony Greenwald wrote a bestseller about implicit bias called Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. (It’s a great primer on this topic).
On the whole, implicit biases are not inherently evil or something to fear. Biases allow us to take mental shortcuts to make sense of the world. A great deal about our biases are actually helpful and necessary. We use implicit biases in the absence of having complete information. For example, emergency physicians rely on them to make quick decisions for their patients. Similarly, I’ve heard educators refer to a “spider-sense” that helps them to manage a classroom full of students. Much of the time, patients and students benefit from a doctor’s or teacher’s ability to instantly recognize patterns and make quick decisions on the fly.
But Banaji and Greenwald found that while many of us would never consciously agree with prejudiced statements against Black people, LGBTQ+ people, or women, we nonetheless harbor implicit biases toward these groups and others. It happens when a doctor makes snap judgments about their patients based on arbitrary categories like race, gender, or age. It happens when an educator only values the opinions of younger colleagues over older colleagues. It happens when Black and Latinx patients are much less likely to receive pain medications in emergency rooms.
Screening for bias
Anthony Greenwald developed a computer-based test called the Implicit Association Test (IAT). As of 2023, over 20 million people have completed the Implicit Association Test. The results of the IAT reveal that implicit bias is hard-wired into us, especially when we are asked to make snap judgments about our associations to categories like race, gender, age, or disability.
As it turns out, most of us score poorly on the IAT, even if we belong to a category that is negatively impacted (e.g., 80% of women show male-career association, 75% of men show it)!
If you don’t believe me, I recommend taking 10 minutes to complete the IAT for yourself.
A harmful cycle
Decades of research show how implicit racial bias can impact how we deliver support in fields like education, housing, law enforcement, and healthcare. Even though these systems are designed to address inequities, disparities have persisted. Unfortunately, as racial disparities grow, implicit biases and stereotypes can be reinforced, creating a harmful cycle.
Pictures often say more than the data do about the effects of racial bias in different fields and occupations.
So, how do we unlearn implicit biases?
Before sharing 3 “unlearning” strategies/approaches, a few caveats…
The strategies I describe are by no means foolproof, but they are informed by research and what I’ve seen work in practice.
My context is K-12 education, these strategies may not fit as well in your setting or workplace, but I believe they could have merit elsewhere.
Many of the studies I reference in this post are using IAT scores to assess the effects of a strategy for a given population. IAT scores are correlated (NOT causally related) to real-life behaviors or interactions.
Final caveat, the strategies are geared toward reducing the downsides of implicit racial bias for specific situations. You may exhaust yourself and others if you apply any strategy all day long. Instead, these approaches are designed to be used when most needed, in situations where the stakes are higher or we may lack all the information we would like to have to make an informed decision (i.e., snap decisions).
Strategy 1: Habits, habits, habits
Neutralizing routines
A few years ago, I was working in a school doing a similar training to the one I did this week on implicit bias and school discipline. One of the participants used a strategy I had shared to break a habit he had developed when driving. He was aware of his tendency to yell or worse at motorists who cut him off in traffic. After he applied a simple technique to break this habit, his grandson saw an immediate difference in how his grandfather reacted when a car swerved in front of his RV. More importantly, the participant was able to modify what had seemed to be an automatic response that did not align with his stated values as an educator or grandparent.
The technique he applied is called a neutralizing routine developed by a team of researchers at the University of Oregon.
As the term suggests, we all have routines in our lives that influence how we respond under specific conditions - especially stressful or ambiguous conditions. A neutralizing routine is simply a replacement routine to help counteract a snap-second response that doesn’t align with our personal values. In this case, the participant applied a 3-step routine called F.U.N (First breathe, Understand the situation, New attitude). Using F.U.N. slowed him down just enough to act less harshly when a car cut him off in traffic.
What this story reveals is that an aspect of unlearning implicit bias is becoming more attuned to our “micro” habits and how to modify them.
Doughnuts and apples
It turns out, it’s easier to replace than eliminate habits we want to modify. All our habits are serving us in some way, so dropping them cold turkey usually doesn’t work long-term. James Clear, a habits expert, recommends starting with raising our awareness of how our habits are formed or sustained before changing them. For example, when we are hungry, why do we choose a doughnut over an apple, even if we consider ourselves healthy or following a balanced diet?
Clear observed our stubborn doughnut habit may have a lot to do with how we stock our pantry, what gets left in the staff room every day at 10 a.m., or the 3 drive-throughs that attract our attention every day on route to work.
Note: all of these environmental factors can be modified and will likely do more to change a habit than just telling ourselves or others to stop eating doughnuts (i.e., counting on will power).
When does your bad habit actually happen?
How many times do you do it each day?
Where are you?
Who are you with?
What triggers the behavior and causes it to start?
According to Clear, just the simple act of starting to track your daily habits often has the effect of making you more aware and giving you ideas to replace less healthy with more healthy habits.
Habits in the classroom
Applying this idea to schools…
Reducing racial bias in a classroom could start by paying attention to what types of students we are most or least attending to a 30-minute lesson.
It may also help to try out a replacement behavior (e.g., neutralizing routine) if we are aware of a time of day or behavior that is predictably stressful or triggering for us.
I’ve found in talking with lots of educators that it’s useful to get specific about situations they predict may be harder for them to manage calmly (place, time of day, student behaviors) — so they can deploy a neutralizing strategy when it’s most needed. (Note: School data can also help — see strategy #3 below)
Note: elementary school teachers are estimated to have 200-300 interactions per hour (most are unplanned) and make about 4 decisions per minute. So, it’s helpful to be strategic and purposeful about which decisions or interactions to focus on.
Here are a few examples of neutralizing routines that could be used in a school setting.
Counting backward 5-4-3-2-1…Before…harshly reprimanding a student for behaviors that are perceived as disrespectful.
Calling on a student randomly from your class roster…Before…calling on the same student again to respond to a class question.
Acknowledge a student nearby for following class expectations…Before…calling out a student nearby for ignoring directions.
You will notice each of these neutralizing routines reflect key features of this strategy — brief, clear steps, doable & designed to interrupt a chain of events.
Strategy 2: Appeal to morals and values
Another aspect of unlearning our implicit racial biases comes from re-thinking how we frame learning and training related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I have attended multiple implicit bias trainings over the course of my career. After some, I’ve left feeling the weight of the harm and injustices people who look or act like me have caused in organizations or across whole cultures. I’ve also participated in trainings that have challenged and inspired me to act differently about how I interact or treat others.
It was interesting to learn what research is revealing about how our approach to training others can both strengthen and diminish implicit racial biases.
Reductions in people’s implicit biases (i.e., IAT scores) have been found to be more highly related to training that encourages change because it’s the moral thing to do rather than because it’s mandated or enforced. Interestingly, when people feel like they are obligated to act less prejudicially toward others, it can lead to them feeling more defensive and less motivated to act differently.
One activity I’ve found helpful to get people to reflect on their deeply held values is called the Individual Card Sort. I’ve used this activity to help educators to sort and rank their values in relation to prompts such as:
What values shape how you approach supporting students in your class or school who don’t look or act like you?
What values led you to pursue a career in education?
What do you most or least value about how you deliver instruction?
Here’s a short video on how to run an individual card sort in person or online. This activity can be adapted for many settings and prompts can be modified as needed.
So, in addition to having people understand habit formation, another factor to consider is how to frame the coaching or training we offer to address implicit racial bias within organizations.
Reminding ourselves or teams to regularly assess or check in with their core values related to their work, could also increase their intrinsic motivation to unlearn attitudes, behaviors, or responses that may not be aligned with their intentions. In organizations, commitment or values exploration work could look like:
Leaders or managers offering testimonials for why reducing racial implicit bias matters to them personally or for the organization’s mission.
Surveying participants after trainings addressing racial bias to understand their experiences. Did the facilitation and training content feel genuine, actionable
or relevant to participants’ role and context?
Avoiding mandates or authoritative language or policies.
Strategy 3: Using data to zero in on clutch situations
Imagine your favorite NBA has reached game 7 of the playoffs. They are playing an away game in the opponent’s arena where almost everyone in a sold-out crowd root against them. In the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, 3 points separate your team from victory or defeat.
As the clock winds down, a whistle blows amidst the deafening cheers of the crowd. A referee makes a last-minute call as two players wrestle for a loose ball. The ref signals a technical foul after a player on your team is called for unsportsmanlike conduct. A player from the home team is sent to the foul line for 3 free throws putting the game out of reach.
Referees in the National Basketball Association (NBA) are hired by the league to judge games impartially. They evaluate in-game situations subjectively and are also prone to biases that are not in line with their values or the league’s interest.
These biases of judgment by the referee can stem from personal preferences towards certain players or teams. Social payoffs in the form of home fans applauding for calls in their teams’ favor can serve as another kind of non-monetary reward.
To reduce favoritism in the NBA, there have been major efforts to monitor the decisions referees make on the court, especially in the closing minutes of games, when fans, players, and refs are all experiencing heightened emotions and high stakes.
The referees also find themselves in high-stakes situations where they must make snap decisions with only a partial view of a potential foul or violation of the rules.
For the educators I have trained, many can relate to the role and pressures experienced by a ref trying to make the right call in the closing minutes of a high-stakes game.
An unlearning strategy the NBA is now applying after every call is performance feedback to detect bias playing out on the court. The league has poured millions into building a replay center based in New Jersey to review real-time calls remotely and share detailed game reports with refs.
The good news is that it’s working - studies have shown decreased racial bias in calls refs are making as a result of sharing performance feedback and reviewing all calls, especially in the closing minutes of games.
Although most organizations can’t match this degree or level of performance feedback, the principle is what matters here.
Many schools are learning to use data dashboards to drill down into discipline referrals to identify specific patterns in how student conduct is applied (e.g., location, type of behavior, race/ethnicity/gender of student, time of day).
This information can allow educators to know when to deploy a strategy like a neutralizing routine. It can also inform adaptations to school-wide strategies if a specific time of day or type of behavior is problematic.
So, a third unlearning strategy is to regularly collect, review, and disaggregate performance data by race and ethnicity to identify situations where racial bias is more likely to influence our decisions. In schools, one place this information can often be found in school discipline databases.
All of a sudden, out of the smog, data may allow us to see clutch situations or behaviors where we may be susceptible to racial implicit bias — or making the wrong call.
Now, many teachers, nurses, police, and refs can access information that could help them see their biases in action.
National discipline data has shown how implicit racial bias is more likely to arise for subjective behaviors (e.g., disruption, defiance, disrespect) and for behaviors occurring in the afternoons in classrooms when educators may be more fatigued or less patient. This type of information could help schools to modify instructional or behavioral supports or to add mindfulness moments later in the day to revive and enhance supports for educators and students.
Can we unlearn a lifetime of racial bias?
The answer is — unlikely.
However, promising research and strategies are helping us to better understand and minimize the effects of racial bias on our clutch decisions.
Here are 3 strategies I explored in this post:
Focusing on habit formation and modification could lessen triggers that lead to more equitable decisions and interactions.
Framing our efforts to reduce bias as a moral obligation vs. a mandate may encourage more of us to sustain the effort needed to unlearn or be aware of our biases.
Getting feedback and regularly using data to identify our blindspots could help us pinpoint when we are most susceptible to making biased decisions and deploy safeguards when needed.
None of these strategies are enough on their own, but when used at scale, could meaningfully reduce the smog that is now clouding our view of one another.
Daniel Kahneman said, “bias disappears in hindsight.”
Hopefully, as we continue to learn how to reduce implicit racial bias in practice, we can look back soon and see significant improvements in the lives of all the people we serve and support.
If you work for an organization that is finding success with a strategy, approach, or policy to help reduce implicit racial bias, please consider adding a comment below or email me at eoinbastable@gmail.com.
Thank you for reading this LONGER than usual post, I appreciate your interest in this important topic.
See you in 2 weeks!