Unconscious bias is defined by Oxford Languages as "unconscious favoritism toward or prejudice against people of a particular ethnicity, gender or social group that influences one's actions or perceptions." Biases are not inherently good or bad. They are the subconscious reactions that our brains conjure in response to the situations occurring around us. The important thing is to acknowledge that everyone has biases, but also that they aren't necessarily true.

This is a section from the National Health Service in the UK on how your mind and bias work:

A simple analogy for understanding how our minds work is to think of them as being made up of lots of pockets of information. We can think of our mind placing every experience we have into a specific pocket. Our mind is always hard at work categorising our experiences and sorting them out into different pockets, while we carry on with our everyday lives.

This happens from childhood. It is one of the ways that we make sense of the world around us and learn how to react to it the next time we have similar experiences. Our mind naturally groups certain experiences together based on what we thought, how we felt and how we behaved when we were having the experience.

This happens automatically because our brain has so much information to process and we need a way of dealing with it all, without us having to consciously think about absolutely everything. It can be a very efficient, unconscious shortcut. The less conscious parts of our mind help us do this and give us access to this information when we need it to help make our decisions.

However, this process does create a problem. It means we make choices in the present moment that are actually based on our past experiences.

So, even though we may be unaware that our mind is helping us to make decisions in this way, this process can shape our biases towards certain people, places and situations in a negative or positive way.

This is why we need to understand bias and seek to make our more unconscious biases conscious, so that we can reflect upon them, challenge them where we need to, and reduce their potential to skew our decision-making. The more we can understand and reflect upon our biases the more we are likely to make fairer decisions.

There are up to 180 different kinds of unconscious biases, including the following: 

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias involves searching for evidence that back up our existing opinions, instead of objectively looking at all information. Often this causes people to overlook information and to focus on factors that fit only their view and reject evidence that contradicts what they already believe. For example, if you believe that people from a certain culture are snobbish or rude, you are more likely to notice and remember instances where that is true, rather than objectively weighing that evidence against all the times you interacted with a friendly or polite person.

Attribution Bias

This bias refers to how we assess others and their achievements. When we think of our achievements, we judge ourselves based on our merit and personality. Anything we’ve been awarded, we’ve earned because of our own hard work; anytime we’ve failed, we’ve been adversely impacted by external factors. When we assess others, we often think the opposite. We believe their successes are due to luck, and their failures are due to poor personal error. For example, if someone rudely pushes past you in line at the airport, you may be more likely to assume that they planned their trip poorly or just have no manners rather than situational circumstances (e.g. delayed flights, an emergency, etc.).

Availability Bias

With availability bias, we tend to overestimate how likely something is to happen based on how easily we can remember the same thing happening previously. For example, if your friend recently had their phone stolen in Paris, you are more likely to overestimate the rate of crime in Paris because the memory of the crime is easy to retrieve.

Affinity Bias

This bias refers to our tendency to gravitate toward people similar to ourselves. For example, if you're studying abroad and meet someone from Montana or even from the United States, you may feel more likely to smile and be friends than with someone who comes from another place.

How to Address your Unconscious Bias

There are several ways to recognize and overcome your unconscious biases:

  • Reflect on past decisions.

If you’ve been in a similar situation before, you can reflect on the outcomes of those previous decisions to learn how to overcome your biases. Take time to remember how the situation made you feel and any outcomes you wish had been different. Pinpoint what you felt, why you felt it, and how you would like to move forward.

  • Include external viewpoints.

Before making a decision, talk to other people to consider different viewpoints and have your own views challenged. Importantly, other people might spot your own cognitive biases.

  • Challenge your viewpoints.

When making a decision, try to see the weaknesses in your thinking regardless of how small, unlikely, or inconsequential these weaknesses might seem. You can be more confident in your decision if it withstands serious, critical scrutiny.

  • Do not make decisions under pressure.

A final way to protect yourself from relying on your cognitive biases is to avoid making any decisions under time pressure. Although it might not feel like it, there are very few instances when you need to make a decision immediately. Here are some tips for making a decision that can have substantial consequences:

  1. Take the necessary time to ruminate.
  2. List the pros and cons.
  3. Talk to friends or family members for advice (but remember that they may have their own biases).
  4. Try to poke holes in your reasoning.

Additional Resources

How Prejudiced Are You? Recognizing and Combating Unconscious Bias - Jennefer Witter, TEDxAlbany

Test Yourself for Hidden Bias by Learning for Justice

Take an Implicit Bias Test