Implicit Bias

Introduction

According to Reinholz et al. (2020), implicit bias is an issue that all instructors must face in their

classrooms. There are currently ongoing progresses in the gender bias policies, but still, there

exists implicit bias in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field

(Avitzour et al. 2020). In recent years, explicit bias against women in STEM has been rapidly

disappearing (Avitzour et al. 2020).

Furthermore, the study of Jackson and Schneider (2014) revealed that implicit bias has the ability

to spur negative attitudes and create damaging stereotypical behaviors in students and women.

These stereotypes negatively affect people and make them feel like they are not good enough or

qualified to handle particular tasks and it also affects promotion at work, hiring, and retention of

women in the STEM field. The study of Teall et al. (2019) examined faculty perceptions of

engaging students in active learning to address implicit bias using videos vignettes and it was

discovered that Implicit bias affects the interaction between patients and nurses and also the

decisions of care management.

Implicit Bias in the Academic Setting

The study of Farrell and McHugh (2020) examined the relationship between implicit bias and

explicit bias in the STEM field by carrying out a test on 70 STEM students (male and female).

The basis for this selection was hinged on gender beliefs about the student’s ability and this was

done by selecting different tasks to show how frequent teachers select either of both genders as

the better students to represent on STEM tests. The results from the Implicit Relational
Assessment Procedure showed that both the male and female students showed to be capable of

representing on STEM based projects.

Implicit Bias towards Women in the Workplace

According to Women in the Workplace (2019), the top notch companies in STEM fields are

currently working hard and making conscious efforts to ensure that talented women are more

included in their workplace. The study also noted that regardless of how hard organizations are

working to include women in their STEM based projects, there is still a lot of women who think

and feel that gender is a huge barrier to career advancement in the STEM space. This was

supported by the study of Charlesworth and Banaji (2019) whose study opined that gender

discrimination is very much around and prevalent in many STEM organizations around the

world and the example made on this study is men and women getting different job offers for the

same job roles based on their gender and what the value that they can give to the organizations.

Implicit Bias Due To Race and Gender

The study of Chin et al. (2020) suggests that the racist attitudes of some teachers tend to affect

their students in a negative way but there are no concrete evidences to conclude that there is a

strong relationship between teachers in the United States and implicit bias due to gender or race.

It was also highlighted in the study that the nationwide data from Project Implicit was used and

the results from this data show that implicit bias in teachers towards black or white students vary

from each teach due to gender and race. It was also gathered that the adjusted teacher bias levels

are said to be reduced in the countries where there are more black students. According to Chin et

al. (2020), on the average, the counties that teachers display higher levels of implicit and/or

racial bias have larger adjusted White/Black test score inequalities and White/Black suspension
disparities.

Discussion

As seen in the body of work, there have been studies on implicit bias and the many ways through

which it affects the victims. It is important that teachers, recruiters, doctors, nurses, employers,

stakeholders in the STEM field and every other professional take the issue of implicit bias more

consciously and strive to avoid doing it unconsciously. In addition, reiterating the fact that

implicit bias affects people psychologically, emotionally and mentally and for these reasons, all

stakeholders should pay attention to ensuring that implicit bias can be reduced drastically, to the

barest minimum.
References

Avitzour, E. & Choen, A, & Daphna, J. & Lavy, V. (2020). The Origin of Gender Based
Behaviour: The Role of Explicit and Implicit Stereotypes. Journal of Contextual Behavioral
Science, 15, 142-152.

Chin, M. J., Quinn, D. M., Dhaliwal, T. K., &Lovison, V. S. (2020). Bias in the air: A nationwide
exploration of teachers' implicit racial attitudes, aggregate bias, and student outcomes. Educational
Researcher, 49(8), 566-578.

Farrell, L., & McHugh, L. (2020). Exploring the relationship between implicit and explicit gender-STEM
bias and behavior among STEM students using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure. Journal of
Contextual Behavioral Science, 15, 142-152.

Jackson, S. M., Hillard, A. L., & Schneider, T. R. (2014). Using implicit bias training to improve attitudes
toward women in STEM. Social Psychology of Education, 17(3), 419-438.

Reinholz, D. L., Stone-Johnstone, A., & Shah, N. (2020). Walking the walk: using classroom analytics to
support instructors to address implicit bias in teaching. International Journal for Academic
Development, 25(3), 259-272.

Teall, A. M., Graham, M., Jenkins, N., Ali, A., Pryba, J., &Overcash, J. (2019). Faculty perceptions of
engaging students in active learning to address implicit bias using videos exemplifying the prenatal visit
of a lesbian couple. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 30(6), 616-626.

Women in the Workplace (2019). McKinsey & Company Report 2019