Unconscious bias

Fred Ashmore discusses a workshop on the challenges of diversity

by Fred Ashmore 14th December 2018

In a well-filled George Fox Room at Friends House two months ago, London Quakers considered the notion of ‘unconscious bias’. ‘Unconscious bias? I’m not biased!’ you might say. Well, Friend, you may not be, but I am – all the time, whether I am aware of it or not. I expect the person digging up the road to be a male. I am a little surprised when the bus driver is a woman. That person talking with a rough South London accent surely isn’t a professor of economics? From below the conscious level, these attitudes reflect unconscious bias.