Slide 2 Unconscious Bias If you asked me to name the greatest
discoveries of the past 50 years, alongside things like the
internet and the Higgs particle, I would include the discovery of
unconscious biases... -Prof. Nancy Hopkins MIT Professor of Biology
Boston University Graduation May 18, 2014 Slide 3 Unconscious Bias
Expectations or stereotypes influence our judgments of others
(regardless of our own group). Gender: Men judging women; women
judging women Men and women BOTH downplay the contributions of
women Race/ethnicity Whites judging minorities; minorities judging
minorities Whites and minorities BOTH downplay the contributions of
minorities Unconscious bias is NOT discrimination NOT prejudice
Slide 4 Schema A well-dressed businessman draws a knife on a
vagrant. The onlookers may (and often do) "remember" the vagrant
pulling the knife. Results of these studies are starting to
question the reliability of eye witnesses. From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia Slide 5 Schemas influence group members expectations
about how they will be judged. allow efficient, if sometimes
inaccurate, processing of information. often conflict with
consciously held or explicit attitudes. change based on
experience/exposure. Nosek, Banaji, & Greenwald (2002). Group
Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice, 6, 101-115. Fiske, Cuddy,
Glick, & Xu (2002). Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 82(6), 878-902. Slide 6 Schemas are applied more often
under circumstances of: Lack of critical mass Time pressure Stress
from competing tasks Ambiguity (including lack of information)
Fiske (2002). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11,
123-128. Slide 7 When Do Schemas Affect Evaluation Outcomes?
Resumes Job credentials Fellowships Hiring Awards Promotion
Proposal Reviews Slide 8 1970s: women were rare in the upper
echelons of the classical music profession 1980: premiere
orchestras Boston, Cleveland, Chicago Philadelphia & NY only
10% women Despite a pool of well- qualified graduates from places
like Juilliard - ~45% women. Example: Americas Symphony Orchestras
Slide 9 Schema: Virtuoso = Male The more women, the poorer the
sound. Women have smaller techniques than men. Women are more
temperamental than men and more likely to demand special attention.
I just dont think women should be in an orchestra. - - Zubin Mehta
Slide 10 Blind Audition During auditions: screen inserted between
musician and judge Results: % women in Americas major symphony
orchestras increases to >40%! Goldin & Rouse (2000) Amer.
Econ. Rev., 90, 715 Slide 11 Virtuoso = Male What is the science
equivalent of the blind audition? Slide 12 Unconscious Bias: Gender
Teams of male and female university psych profs (search committees)
Evaluate candidates for an open position (assist prof of psych)
Application packages for Karen and Brian are identical except for
name Search committees preferred 2:1 to hire Brian over Karen When
evaluating a more experi- enced record (tenure), reservations
expressed 4 times more often for Karen than for Brian Brian Karen
Steinpreis, Anders, & Ritzke (1999) Sex Roles, 41, 509. Slide
13 Unconscious Bias: Race Lakisha had to send 15 resumes to get a
callback, compared to 10 needed by Emily Lakisha needed 8 more
years of experience to get as many callbacks as Emily The higher
the resume quality, the larger the gap between callbacks for Emily
and Lakisha Emily Lakisha Bertrand & Mullainathan (2004)
Poverty Action Lab, 3, 1-27. Slide 14 Implicit Association Test
Think unconscious bias = conscious prejudice? Think you dont have
unconscious biases? Try taking the Harvard Implicit Association
Test: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ Slide 15 Space
Telescope Slide 16 NSF Astronomy Summary for 10 years (FY04 to
FY13) % Female% Female Awards Pool Awards Pool A&A Research
Grants19 219 1 Career39 925 3 A&A Postdoctoral Fellows42 839 3
Total22 222 1 Slide 17 NSF Astronomy Summary for 10 years (FY04 to
FY13) % Female% Female Awards Pool Awards Pool A&A Research
Grants19 219 1 Career39 925 3 A&A Postdoctoral Fellows42 839 3
Total22 222 1 Slide 18 NSF Astronomy Summary for 10 years (FY04 to
FY13) % Female% Female Awards Pool Awards Pool A&A Research
Grants19 219 1 Career39 925 3 A&A Postdoctoral Fellows42 839 3
Total22 222 1 Slide 19 NSF Astronomy Summary for 10 years (FY04 to
FY13) % Female% Female Awards Pool Awards Pool A&A Research
Grants19 219 1 Career39 925 3 A&A Postdoctoral Fellows42 839 3
Total22 222 1 Slide 20 AAPF: Using Every Tool in the Toolbox No
letters of recommendation are allowed Letters suffer from and
impart unconscious bias Reviewers are now more aware of their own
unconscious bias Many of the PIs are not personally known by the
panel members To minimize their own unconscious biases, reviewers
often dont look for or dont remember the gender of the PI. Requires
a strong Broader Impact component; many of the PIs have significant
education and outreach experience. May lessen factors like Imposter
Syndrome and Stereotype Threat since there is no existing
stereotype that men are better than women at education &
outreach like there is for math & science Slide 21 Letters of
Recommendation for Successful Medical School Faculty Letters for
men: Longer More references to: CV Publications Patients Colleagues
Letters for women : Shorter More references to personal life More
doubt raisers (hedges, faint praise & irrelevancies) Its
amazing how much shes accomplished. It appears her health is
stable. She is close to my wife. Trix & Psenka (2003) Discourse
& Society, Vol 14(2): 191-220; Martin, Hebl & Madera (2009)
Jour of Applied Psych, Vol. 94, No. 6, 15911599. He is an
established leader vs. She might make an excellent leader Try
writing a gender-neutral letter: He/she is a sweet young thing.
Slide 22 What Can We Do about Unconscious Bias? Awareness Policies
Practices Accountability BIAS Slide 23 How do we start a job
search? 1. Form a search committee 2. Write an ad targeting a
specific sub-discipline 3. Advertize the position 4. Wait for the
applications to pour in 0. Recruitment of the Applicant Pool If you
follow this standard practice, odds are that the racial and gender
diversity of your applicant pool will look a lot like your current
dept. If you want the pool to be more diverse, you have to work a
bit harder. Slide 24 Recruitment of the Applicant Pool Recruit
proactively year- round Recruit specifically for underrepresented
groups Use of open searches (broad vs. narrow job definitions) If
possible, advertize for multiple positions at once (cluster
hiring). Slide 25 How do we continue a job search? 1. Search
committee picks best candidates 2. Applications sit in a server 3.
Faculty invited to browse through the files 4. Best candidates are
invited to campus This is the easiest, least painful way to go
through this process. Efforts may be made to avoid conscious bias
and prejudice, but opportunities abound for unconscious bias
dominate the selection. Slide 26 Candidate Evaluation Tool
http://www.umich.edu/%7Eadvproj/CandidateEvaluationTool.doc 1. Are
YOU qualified to evaluate the candidate? Slide 27 Candidate
Evaluation Tool
http://www.umich.edu/%7Eadvproj/CandidateEvaluationTool.doc 2.
Criteria for evaluating each candidate: Slide 28 How should we
evaluate candidates? 1. Set criteria before looking at applications
2. Evaluate all applications based on the same criteria 3. All
candidates that meet the criteria become part of the long short
list 4. All long short list candidates get phone interviews Slide
29 NSF Criteria: Intellectual Merit & Broader Impacts What is
the potential for the proposed activity to advance knowledge and
understanding within its own field or across different fields; and
benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes? To what
extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative,
original, or potentially transformative concepts? Is the plan for
carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized,
and based on a sound rationale? Does the plan incorporate a
mechanism to assess success? How well qualified is the individual,
team, or institution to conduct the proposed activities? Are there
adequate resources available to the PI to carry out the proposed
activities? Slide 30 Ways to Mitigate Bias Increase awareness of
how implicit biases might affect evaluation Decrease time pressure
and distractions in evaluation process Rate on explicit criteria
rather than global judgments Point to specific evidence supporting
judgments Bauer and Baltes, 2002, Sex Roles 9/10, 465. Slide 31
Diversity Checklist Do I encourage women to follow their interests
in terms of education and career path? Do I mentor junior women
& seek advice from senior women? Do I double-check and ensure I
am fairly assessing all applicants for new positions, promotions,
etc.? Do I include women in lunches, gatherings, and technical
discussions? Do I listen to womens opinions in meetings and do I
show support for (some/many of) their ideas? Do I help ensure that
our work space and rules accommodate womens needs? Do I nominate
women for awards/recognitions? Do I suggest women as invited
speakers, co-organizers, etc.? Do I congratulate women on their
successes? Slide 32 Excellence has no gender or race or sexual
orientation Special thanks to Abigail Stewart (Univ. of Mich.) for
slides, references & information
