Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2019

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Attentional Effects of Bias and Their Outcomes

In Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt’s book, she reveals that bias is a byproduct of the essential functioning of the brain. By doing so, she creates an objective foundation upon which bias can be examined and dismantled. Bias has the power to determine the attention of humans, affecting what and who they see and don’t see. Attentional bias can have adverse effects for individuals and society, creating unequal outcomes and opportunities.

The race-selective response is exhibited in babies as young as three months old. Scans of their brains reveal that babies react more strongly toward faces that reflect their own race. The race-selective response persists throughout life; humans build up preferences for faces that are similar to their own and similar to the faces that they see on a day-to-day basis. In one study performed by Eberhardt and her colleagues which tracked the activation of the fusiform face area in participants’ brains, their findings revealed that individuals’ brains reacted more vigorously to photographs of those with the same race as the participants. Further research showed that the brain reacts to the introduction of opposite-race faces by using categorization, a means of reacting to stimuli. When stimuli are categorized in this way, their nuances become less noticeable to the observer. For example, when white participants in one study were shown Black faces, those faces “were not processed as deeply or attended to as carefully” (26).

The ramifications for the attentional effects of bias are startling. It can affect the ability of crime victims to properly identify their attackers. In the case of a string of purse theft cases in New York City’s Chinatown, the Asian women who were attacked were unable to pick out the features of the specific perpetrators responsible for the thefts from line-ups of young Black men. Attentional bias can also cause individuals to associate Black individuals, particularly Black men, with crime, while rendering Black men and women invisible to employers when considering applicants for a job. In one study in which teachers were asked to watch four students in a video and to identify problematic behaviors, eye movement scans revealed that the teachers directed their attention far more often on the Black students, particularly the Black male students, than their white peers. These studies reveal how bias can affect what is seen and not seen. Attentional bias then leads to stereotyping and prejudice, beliefs and attitudes that can alter the direction of the country and disadvantage entire communities. Eberhardt seeks to educate her audience about attentional bias so that in becoming aware of our own patterns we might be able to change our biased behaviors.

The Roles of Awareness and Education in Combating Bias

Eberhardt’s book shows the many ways in which bias can inhibit and disadvantage people. By examining the multiple studies and experiences which reveal the negative effects of bias, readers are left to question how bias can be lessened or even eliminated. Eberhardt reveals multiple avenues to explore when combating bias, including the pursuit of knowledge and the confrontation of bias.

Throughout the book, the author shows how the pursuit of knowledge can reveal valuable information about how the human brain works and how it has immense societal effects. She provides a rich body of examples through studies, personal stories, and historical accounts to advance both her own knowledge and the knowledge of the reader. As a consultant to multiple law enforcement agencies, Eberhardt utilized the pursuit of knowledge to shift department cultures. When Nextdoor app creators realized that their app was being used to perpetuate racist stereotypes, they called Eberhardt to train them on implicit bias and to seek ways to help alleviate it. When Starbucks drew national attention for a news story about one of their employees calling the police based upon biased thinking, the company made bias training and education a focus of their business model. Eberhardt recognizes training and education as a valuable key to shifting the cultural narrative.

The confrontation of bias is also an important tool in combating bias: “research supports the notion that raising the issue of race and discrimination explicitly can lead people to be more open-minded and act more fairly, particularly when they have time to reflect on their choices” (185). Awareness leads to a process of questioning and reflection which challenges societal norms. A common practice of many American schools is color blindness, an idea that suggests one can simply not think about color, and that, by doing so, bias is eliminated. In reality, however, Eberhardt suggests that color blindness leads to further discrimination because it inhibits individuals from recognizing it. Rather than avoiding talking about race, confronting it and promoting awareness can lead to better questioning and dismantling of biased thought.

In addition to education and awareness, Eberhardt advocates for slowing down: “when we are forced to make quick decisions using subjective criteria, the potential for bias is great” (285). When working with the makers of the Nextdoor app, she helped them develop a set of questions users must answer before reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods, forcing users to slow down and think. The law enforcement departments she worked with developed systems for asking questions and building connections during routine stops before jumping to conclusions or making assumptions about those with which they were interacting. When umpires were forced to watch playback footage rather than make split-second decisions, racial bias disappeared.

Education, awareness, and slowing down are valuable components to combating bias. Because the normal functioning of the brain relies on imperfect systems that can skew the data humans take in, that data needs to be closely examined before decisions are made.

The Inheritance of Bias

Throughout the book, Eberhardt explores the historical and social contexts of the issues presented. For example, when examining current conditions of the housing markets she points to the original legislation and bias-based decisions which informed the trajectory of this aspect of American life. As a result of decisions made by real estate agents and both private and government forces, the notion that homes owned by Black families are not as nice or are of less value persist. In this way, the theme of bias as an inheritance emerges. Bias is where culture and cognition meet, and the two work together in an unending cycle. Culture affects how humans think, and how humans think affects culture. These ideas are passed down from generation to generation, and it can be difficult to break the chains of thought.

Eberhardt finds an example of this concept in the roots of scientific racism. In Chapter 6, Eberhardt discusses the early findings of scientists who perpetuated racist views in order to further the advancement of white people. For example, in 1799 British surgeon Charles White asserted that a natural hierarchy exists, and that the physical differences of different races proved that Europeans were the “farthest removed from the brute creation” while Africans “occupied the lowest rungs” (135). Eberhardt provides multiple examples of this type of flawed thinking, such as the widely read book Types of Mankind in 1854 by Josiah Nott and George Gliddon. Nott and Gliddon, slave owners, served the idea that slavery was a natural condition for what they perceived to be an inferior race.

These ideologies persist in scientific reasoning today, and they can be difficult to disassemble. Eberhardt shares a story of presenting her findings to contemporary colleagues and being met with questions about whether the association between Black people and primates has more to do with color matching. Her colleagues failed to understand the scientific racism that was informing even their own thinking. Eberhardt’s research into the Black-ape association revealed that this association had infiltrated thought outside of the scientific world; it had been inherited by politicians, police officers, and social media users. Eberhardt found that the black-ape association could be found in nearly every country she visited and that marginalized groups all over the world were attacked using animal imagery (149). “Associations,” she explains, “can lurk outside our consciousness even when we are not directly taught about them and even when we do not readily discuss them with others” (150). In this way, bias becomes a terrible dowry, bequeathed to everyone.