Interesting results

I'm always trying to learn more about myself, always trying to figure myself out.  A couple of years ago while I was still working, I attended a training session on Unconscious Bias.  We were given a link to a website where you could take multiple tests to see what bias was implicit in your makeup.

I think I took a couple of the tests, I really don't remember that well.  Last week, I read an article on implicit bias.  So, I clicked a link and took the race test and the gender-career test.  Here are my results.

Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for African American compared to European American.

Your data suggest a strong association of Male with CAREER and Female with FAMILY compared to Female with CAREER and Male with FAMILY.

I'm not sure if I'm surprised or validated by my results.

I thought I was more balanced than that.  I thought if I showed a preference or association it would be slight and not strong.

So on the issue of race, I'm very comfortable and validated by my results.  Either slight automatic preference, or no preference would have been fine with me.

But the gender issue - I know I have a strong association of Female and FAMILY, but I would have thought I had an equally strong association of Female and CAREER.  I wonder if my results would have been different when I was still working in corporate America.

I'm disturbed by the fact that even though I try very hard to see males and females as equals, having equal importance and responsibilities both at work and at home, I'm implicitly biased.

I wonder if and how this manifested in my working life?  Did I find it easier to ask my male employees to sacrifice family time than my female employees?  Did I give my female employees more latitude with flexible scheduling to meet their families' needs?

I don't think I did.  And that is the thing that I remember about unconscious bias from the seminar.  It is just that, unconscious.  And knowing about your biases allows you to learn compensatory behaviors, it allows you to question your initial thought or judgement, but I'm not sure you can change these bias because you want to.  If you could, I wouldn't have the strong association of Male with CAREER.

I know life experiences can change your unconscious bias.  I know that knowing them is good so that you can combat the bias you have.  There are many tests available if you are interested in learning more about yourself.  Here is a link to Project Implicit.

As for me, I think I will take a bunch more tests.  I'm comfortable with knowing more about myself, even if I'm not always comfortable with what I learn.