Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

I had to purchase this book for a class and it was very interesting of the insights this provides and the transparency it can enlighten someone to everyday situations. I've used this in my Step forward towards the health and medical professions.

In great condition and arrived before school started

Blind Spots is an interesting romp into the world of unconscious stereotyping, why we do it, and how we can either eradicate (or more likely) work around it. Banaji and Greenwald are two psychologists who have (I think, together) developed tests called Implicit Association Tests (IAT's). These tests cleverly find out whether we make unconscious associations between things (like white people and "nice" words, or men and "leadership" words). I'll leave it to you to read their explanation of how these tests work - and you can take a few of them in the book - but all of this helps us get at what unconscious biases we have. (This, in contrast to a lot of our talk about discrimination and bias, which focuses only on intentional bias. Here, we are talking about unconscious discrimination and bias.)And what have the authors found in the years of administering IATs and looking at similar literature by others who study unconscious bias? Well, first.... we all have 'em. And second.... we generally have ones we don't want to have, like how Americans and Europeans tend to associate white faces with positive things and black (or non-white) faces with negative things, or how we all (even the elderly) take a dimmer view of the elderly than the young. And the worst part? Most of us show these biases even though our conscious brains are appalled by such associations. (For two good books exploring how our unconscious shapes our thought more than we think, see Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind and The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think.)The authors go into why we stereotype (we are pattern-seeking creatures), how stereotypes can lead us astray as well as hurt the sterotyped, evidence of how ingrained the tendency to see the world in "us and them" terms, and suggestions for how to work around these biases (because ridding ourselves of them may not be an option). The authors back their ideas up with moderately thorough reviews of existing data, which is good, considering that the nature of their argument means that we can't exactly argue back ("But, I would never discriminate!"). Their suggestions range from figuring out creative ways to avoid being in the position to discriminate (the symphony who found a way to do "blind" auditions for instrumentalists), to the importance of exposing yourself to those who confound stereotypes (reviewing stories of black heroes can mitigate black = negative associations).I take off one star only for occasional faulty reasoning by the authors. One such example occurred in their discussion of the general public's equation of pit bulls with violence (which statistically does not quite bear out). Their suggestion was that if the statistics don't bear out, the only reason we might treat the next pit bull we see as likely dangerous is sheer dumb fear. Not so! It may be that we have less to lose in treating the next pit bull we see as violent when it is not than we have to lose in not doing so if it is. Not that it is a big deal, but occasional sloppiness in reasoning does persist throughout the book. Otherwise, I'd recommend this to anyone who wants interesting (albeit painful) highlighting of our unconscious tendency toward irrational bias. Even if we just learn about our own blind spots, we might have a tendency to be on the look out for them and maybe improve our decision making. Worth a read!

This book is incredibly engaging, conversational, and takes you on an enlightening (and slightly disturbing) journey of self-discovery. It outlines the authors' work with people's hidden and unrecognized biases, referring to them as residing in our mental blindspot. Modules to test one's own implicit biases are included, along with insightful explanations of what it really means to have those biases. The real power of this book, even more than in helping you overcome your biases, is in its ability to make you aware of them and train you to analyze your interactions with others in a more objective, fair way. You'll find it to be a useful tool as you continue your personal and professional interactions with others.If you found this review helpful, please click the "Helpful" button below to encourage more reviews by me. Thank you!

An eyeopening introduction to "Implicit Associations" aka biases that we might be totally unaware of, because our intellect believes that we don't have them. Do I believe intellectually that a woman can do an as good as or even better job as a CEO, or even the POTUS, than a man? Definitely! But, after taking a few of the tests, I didn't have to take the gender test to know that I'd flunk and put women to work in their homes, because that's the way I was raised, and that's my primary and hidden bias.I now have an explanation for feeling more "comfortable" with male bosses over the years, despite being a feminist.The racial bias test was was even more challenging intellectually. Unlike the authors, I didn't "flunk" it (meaning I don't share the "white" bias of 75% of the test takers, including many people of color). But, how do I reconcile the fact that I have a more positive association to people who do not share my European ancestry? I was actually born in Germany after WWII to German parents who had a pronounced preference for their own kind. I suspect that's the reason for my apparent contrariness, but after reading about the authors' shock at their results, I was definitely concerned that I might also flunk the test, despite my intellectual view on the subject. Along with the relief of "passing" the test came the next question...so, why don't I like my own race...myself?No, this book doesn't give in-depth explanations for ways to combat test results that don't fit with your intellectual self-image, but it definitely makes you aware that what you think and believe about yourself doesn't necessarily match how you feel innately, and those innate feelings do influence your behavior, despite your belief to the contrary.

It's a decent enough book, but How to Be an Antiracist is in a different class and I recommend that over Blind Spot. Many books about unconscious or implicit bias have coined and redefined terms with eloquence and gravitas. "Mindbugs" is not one of them. It's a too-cute term that does a disservice to an issue that deserves better.I recommend reading books that shine a light on the human condition of under-represented people in America and try imagining what living under those conditions was like, and continue to be today.Read:"The Warmth of Other Suns" and "Caste" by Isabel Wilkerson"The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein"The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

This book was chosen for a book club discussion. The science was fascinating. The authors did a great job laying the foundation on how the human unconscious brain works. Great to be aware of biases or personal "blind spots" in order to lead the life you desire to lead in your conscious mind.

Ainda lendo

Muy enfocado a tema psicológico pero súper aterrizado a vida diaria. Nos da un “golpe de realidad” a lo que creemos ser imparciales cuando, en realidad, tenemos muchísimos sesgos inconscientes. Muy buena lectura que incluye algunos ejercicios muy interesantes que vale la pena hacer, para sacarnos de nuestras creencias.

The tests they offer in the book showed my true subconscious when it comes to biases of different types (gender, race, age, even insects!)I would definitely recommend it to anyone that really wants to raise their standards when it comes to inclusivity and belonging.

A great book for increasing personal awareness about how much of what we do and think is unconscious. It served as a fundamental guide for my book Understanding Gender at Work. It helped me appreciate why we all have biases and how we can start to deal with them.

Blindspot written by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald, is a compelling book on our impulses, our reactions based on already stored information in a part of the brain which as a conscious person we are not aware of. It talks about years of research done in the field of psychology to arrive at a conclusion that we as a humans, have stereotypes inbuilt in our brains which is a major reason for our talk, reason, action, reaction. Using the Implicit Association test (IAT), writers make you aware of dangerous realities inside your brain that for example you are a “White” racial person even though you would deny that in the open setting. It is a very important study of human characteristics and tell you why you think the way you think. Stereotypes are not acquired, it is built over the years of data, seeing things around, seeing people around, culture, religion etc. We humans, have the great capacity to imprint what we see, and that becomes a basis of our action, the need to rationalize or act according to a situation is over-awed by the automatic reaction side of our brain. We remain oblivious to our hidden biases and it influences our behavior towards members of various social groups and our ability to take rational decisions.Tons of IAT done on all types of human races: Americans (White or Black), Asians, Hispanics, Europeans have revealed that we live in a polarized society which forms opinion not entirely on the facts of the case but by something which we historically came to believe not knowing that that is stored in brain and we are not aware of this shortfall. The word psychologists use to capture the cracks in system is dissociation., which encompasses so many of humankind’s contradictory attitudes and behaviors that it ranks among psychology’s most powerful concepts. Here’s a definition: Dissociation is the occurrence, in one and the same mind, of mutually inconsistent ideas that remain isolated from one another. Author writes, it is the barrier between the dissociation (Reflexive or rational mind and Automatic or intuitive mind) that IATs were designed to reveal.The question of why is it important to know what’s in your brain also comes up, because it could be devastating for an individual to know his/her certain innate biases which he/she all along has acted against it or atleast talked opposite in public. It could lead to sadness or even cause distress. “It undermines the image we have of ourselves as largely fair-minded and egalitarian”, authors note. Continuing forward, book explains what Japanese Poet Ryunosuke Akutagawa said “What good is intelligence if you cannot discover a useful melancholy”, in simple terms it means that knowledge that provokes a feeling of distress is only of value if it can be put to some use. In the books’ terms, authors writes ‘Of What value is it to have developed tests like the IAT that reveal the darker sides of our selves.In one of the striking examples of favoritism or hidden bias, is a story of Carla Kaplan. Carla Kaplan was an assistant professor of American Literature at Yale in late 1980s. To paraphrase the story here, Carla was a dedicated quilter. One evening while washing a crystal bowl, it accidently slipped from her hands. The jagged edge of the broken bowl slit her hand from mid-palm to wrist. She was taken to a nearby Yale affiliated New Haven hospital. Her boyfriend explained to the attending doctor that she is a quilter so she needs a special attention and hand to be treated in a way she can start quilting again. He feared injury might impair the fine motor control she needs for the activity she loved. A student volunteer saw Carla, and said “Professor Kaplan”, for which the doctor asked “You’re a professor at Yale?”. She was then rushed to the surgery department and the best hand surgeon from Connecticut was called in to treat and restore Carla’s hand. So she was treated specially not because, she was just another patient but she was a Yale Professor. A classic example of in-group favoritism.This books is full of such examples where authors runs you through your daily life and give you examples which can shock you and can enlighten you at the same time. It is important for us as part of a millennial to know what we are acting upon. It is important we understand that if our actions are based facts/rationales or we are acting on false impulses stored in some part of the brain which can be dig upon. Human mind is a dangerous thing, which is why we have whole branch of science dedicated to it. But when it comes to acting upon a certain shortfall inside us, it rarely falls upon the realms of scientific research but only upon one individual. You. I will end this piece by quoting a part of the book below which will remain with me and I wish to pass on:“The reflective aspects of our mind allows to imagine a future that improves on the present state of affairs, to achieve settled upon and consciously chosen goals and values. Knowledge is indeed powerful, and self-knowledge achieved by taking the IAT can exert its power by unsettling existing views of one’s mind. If that happens, the melancholy produced by the IAT will indeed by useful.”