Overall, I knew that most people are affected by biases more than they know, so I was not surprised by the fact that people have biases. However, I had no idea about the prevalence of this problem. Furthermore, the mentioned impacts of biases in different areas of life, such as education, law, and healthcare, exist on an unexpected scale. I thought that the effects of biases were limited to economic and social spheres. For me, one of the significant discoveries from this video was related to the problem of changing implicit biases – I believed that changes on both individual and societal levels were possible. However, the experts featured in the video proved that this is almost impossible, and only limited success can be achieved. Another interesting piece of information I received from this video considered the method of obtaining data – the experiment that was demonstrated in the video. The design of the experiment was new and interesting to me.
Regarding the likelihood of changes in our implicit biases, I rely on the claims of the experts featured in the video. For instance, Anthony Greenwald said that implicit biases are incredibly stable and virtually unchangeable, while Calvin Lai added that such associations are built throughout a person’s life (The Christian Science Monitor 03:18-04:00). Moreover, intentional and controlled resistance to such biases can backfire. Nevertheless, while fighting biases on the individual level is almost impossible, I believe that institutional changes in procedure and practices can eradicate the consequences of the problem. Therefore, as stated by the experts, it is impossible to transform or dispose of the biases, yet it is absolutely feasible to trick and get around them.
Works Cited
“This Test Reveals Implicit Biases You Don’t Know You Have.” YouTube, uploaded by The Christian Science Monitor, Web.