Implicit Bias Vs Unconscious Bias: Types Ways to Prevent Them

The answer to the popular 'implicit bias vs unconscious bias' debate is just the same. Both Implicit bias and unconscious bias refer to the unconscious stereotypes, prejudices, or attitudes that affect our decision-making, perception, and social behavior.

Conscious Vs Unconscious Bias

There are broadly two types of bias: Conscious/explicit and unconscious/implicit bias

• Conscious bias is intentional and results commonly in response to the perception of threat to one's well-being while unconscious bias is unintentional.
• Conscious bias occurs as discrimination, physical and verbal harassment like hate speech while unconscious bias surfaces as microaggressions.

16 Common Types of Implicit Bias

1. Affinity or Similarity Bias

When we prefer one over another due to the shared similarities, the similarities can range from interests, culture, ethnicity, and also career history. 

2. Attribution Bias

• Attribution bias is when we assume others' success incorrectly. It may arise when we regard others' success as luck and their failures as indetermination and incompetence. 
• This bias is ironic as we usually regard our achievements as the result of hard work while failures in situations.
• Attribution bias can also affect your judgment while recruiting candidates, as you may negatively perceive something unusual on the resume or the candidate's behavior. 

3. Beauty or Attractiveness Bias

Beauty bias is when we perceive attractive individuals as more competent than the one perceived unattractive. Ironically, a highly attractive person is looked down upon and is perceived to be influenced by their beauty. 

4. Conformity Bias

• It is a form of social influence wherein one's decision gets affected by the others around. 
• This bias can seep into the group meetings while reviewing the candidates' applications and may result in missing out on the most talented candidate of all. 

5. Halo Effect

• Have you ever learned something impressive about someone, and they start appearing to you as competent? Is there any valid reason to assume them as competent based on a single trait? 
• The answer is no, but that is what this bias is all about, wherein one positive aspect of someone colors our perception of them. 
• It can affect hiring as recruiters may prefer to hire alumni from top-notch institutions or those with higher than those with essential quality skillset.

6. Horns Effect

• The Horns Effect is the exact reverse of the halo effect wherein one views, someone, negatively after learning something unpleasant about them. 
• This bias can show in instances like disliking a candidate who worked with a competitor firm or the one with a job gap. 

7. Contrast Effect

• This bias stems from setting one thing as the best and comparing the rest relative to it. It can be shown during recruitment as you may compare the performance of one candidate with another. 
• It can cause the candidate, despite giving a decent performance, to get out of the league as their performance is seen relative to someone who performed exceptionally in the recruiter's eyes.

8. Gender Bias

• Gender bias is the preference of one gender over the other even when both are equally capable for the job. 
• One study found that men are 1.5 times more likely to get a job than women.

9. Ageism or Age Bias

• Age bias is the tendency to discriminate between people from one age group. It can occur with both young employees and older ones, though with older ones, it is more prevalent.
• In the US, 58% of employees believe age bias becomes noticeable when they enter their 50s.
• It can negatively affect the quality of life of older employees as they find great difficulty in finding a new job. Moreover, due to the company's preference over young, older employees aren't able to move up in their career ladder. 

10. Name Bias

• Name Bias is the tendency to prefer some names over others. 
• One study found that those with Asian surnames received 28% fewer selection offers than those with Anglo ones. Moreover, those with white first names were more likely to get selected than those with African American names. 

11. Height Bias

• Height bias is the perception of a tall person as more competent, healthy, and employable than those shorter.
• One study found that those employees who were six feet tall earned $5,500 more than those with a height of 5.5 ft.

12. Expectation Anchor Bias

This bias shows when you make one piece of information as the basis and base the rest of your decision w.r.t it. 

13. Non-Verbal Bias

• It is the judgment of a person based on their non-verbal cues like body language etc. It is very common in the workplace as the recruiters may regard a weak handshake or lack of eye contact with disinterest or overconfidence. 
• This bias can prevent the organization from hiring talented individuals with an excellent skill record but a weak first impression. 

14. Authority Bias

• Authority bias is giving preference to an idea or opinion given by an authority figure. 
• It is highly pervasive with most companies dictating a 'Follow the Leader' attitude, even when the leader's decisions lack the spark. 

15. Overconfidence Bias

When one thinks highly of their abilities, they are in reality, which can result in stunted growth in the long run.

16. Confirmation bias

• Confirmation bias is the tendency to form judgments based on personal beliefs and prejudices rather than on unbiased merit.
• It can affect the work environment even from the point of hiring when the candidate doesn't seem to match the recruiter's definition of success or competency.

From where do these biases stem? How can we identify and neutralize them?

3 Top Reasons for Implicit Bias

1. Our Tendency to Form Patterns

We naturally form patterns and associations to make sense of everything around us. Inclination to the similar as safe while dissimilar as bad results in forming implicit bias. 

2. Incorrect Cognitive Shortcuts 

When one considers stereotypes and limiting beliefs to make decisions and judgments, we form and even strengthen implicit bias. 

3. Cultural and Social influences

Our upbringing, media, and culture have heavily influenced our way of perception and can give rise to implicit bias. 

4 Serious Consequences of Implicit Bias

1. Decreased efficiency and productivity. 
2. Prevalence of Imposter Syndrome, especially in people of color and minorities. 
3. Lower job satisfaction. 
4. Missing out on skilled candidates. 

13 Ways to Avoid Implicit Bias

1. Train your employees and managers to make them aware of their actions and their consequences. 
2. Hold frequent discussions to address bias and provide tools to tackle them. 
3. Conduct blind interviews.
4. Ask skill-based questions and access all candidates fairly.
5. If you find something unusual about the candidate, don't presume and instead ask it directly.
6. Provision to submit everyone's review separately and then hold a discussion to decide.
7. Examine a candidate holistically.
8. Uncover the root cause of your negative beliefs about a candidate.
9. Debunk age-related myths to your employees and address the importance of age diversity.
10. Conduct telephonic interviews to avoid beauty and height bias.
11. Encourage taking new challenges to avoid overconfidence.
12. Consider taking opinions from other sources and members before finalizing the decision of the authority figure to ensure it aligns with the company's values.
13. Omit personal information from the resumes.

Implicit bias is a very hideous form of bias that sits in our subconscious and affects our judgment ability and behavior. Our take on Implicit bias vs Unconscious bias points to a single greatest issue, i.e., the existence and impact of this type of bias on our psyche.

Thus, every organization should go out of its way to spread its awareness through training and tackle it before it plagues in its decision-making, leading to irreparable consequences.