Unconscious Bias

About a year ago I came across a term that I had never heard of before, 'Unconscious Bias', sometimes called 'Unconscious Knowledge'. My boss asked me to look into it and see if we could improve our outcomes by understanding or incorporating this into our business model. So I did a little research and was very impressed with what I found. Not so impressed by the concept itself - I think it is simple enough (I mean I understanding it) but very impressed that the psychological world and the philosophical or religious world of Buddhism have met.

The reason we need mindfulness training, is to be aware of our unconscious bias to start with and then know when to listen to our unconscious bias and when not to. Let me try to explain unconscious bias first.

Unconscious bias is the unconscious or fast thinking part of us working before we engage the slow or deliberate part of our thinking. Everyone has this fast, unconscious type of thinking and in fact we need it to survive. At any given moment we are receiving thousands of bits of information or stimulus from the world around us. If we had to process all of that consciously, our brain would melt down, so our unconscious processes most of it automatically for us. Cool ha! Well yes, most of the time.

Our unconscious will process new conditions or information in a very similar way it did the last time we encountered similar conditions. So if when we were little, we stepped out onto the road in front of a car and our parent pulled us back to the side, we learned that we can not cross the road when the car is that close. The next time we see a car that close, we will not even try to cross the road and that decision will be made very quickly by our unconscious: therefore doing most of the work for us and helping to keep us alive. The more we repeat the conditions the more confirmed the unconscious processing will become.

Now, think about the person who yelled at you and made you very scared when you were young. The next time you see someone similar, or under similar conditions, you might start to feel a little scared because your fast thinking tells you that that is the right response. It doesn't know that this is a different person. (Very simply example there, please work with me here.)

Now most of the time, this unconscious, or fast thinking works for us, helping us, and we like it. It saves us from having to think about every single tiny little item we ever see, hear, smell, touch and taste. But sometimes, in fact - a lot and often. This fast thinking also does some of the thinking about the people we see.

It tells us that the big man with tattoos and a beard is dangerous and that we should not go near him. It tells you that the stranger, on their own looking back and forward, is up to no good. And maybe sometimes, just sometimes, this is true and you should listen to this fast thinking and move away. But ask yourself - is this always the case? Or even most of the time?

The one big inaccuracy or problem with the unconscious thinking (response); we can not reply on it when it comes to judging people. The fast car, yes. The wild animal, yes. The stranger - NO. Especially the black man, or the tattooed man, or the women in a tight red dress.

Mindfulness tells us to be always aware of our thinking, our thoughts, our feelings our automatic responses. And so when we become aware that our fast, unconscious thinking is starting to make a decision for us, (and remember we can not stop our unconscious nor do we want to), we might consider stopping for just a moment, stepping in and taking charge or our actions and asking if this is an appropriate response.

Buddhism would tell us that each person on this planet is just trying to be happy, trying to find a way out of suffering, and without a manual I should add! It would say that we all have much more in common with each other than we have differences.

*******

So please try, whenever you can, to be mindful of your unconscious bias (your first instinctive reaction) and not act on it until you have had a little time to allow your slow, more deliberate thinking to process what might be the best response.

Thanks for reading.