IMPLICIT BIAS & FAIR

EVALUATION & SELECTION PROCESSES

Monique A. Galpin
David J. Moser, PhD

Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

 WHAT IS IMPLICIT BIAS?

Implicit bias refers to automatic thoughts or mental

shortcuts that affect our thinking and behavior without our
explicit realization that this is occurring.

Virtually everyone possesses implicit biases – it does not

mean that everyone is bigoted, racist, and has malicious
intent.

What is most important is learning how to identify and

understand our own biases so as to minimize their
potentially negative impact on others.

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What automatic thoughts might we have based on a person’s….?

Mobility Political
Vehicle
Views
Race
Grooming
& Hygiene Hometown or
Weight Religion
Neighborhood
Gender Food
Sexual Preferences
Age
Orientation

Language Clothing Like / Dislike of

Accent & Dogs
Grammar
Height
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How do we develop our own
particular set of biases?

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GENDER BIAS RELATED RESEARCH

• Moss-Racusin, CA; Davidio, JF, Brescoll, VL, et al (2012)

• One of the 1st studies to specifically test for gender bias within
academic science
• Designed and sent applicant materials to 127 faculty for lab
manager position
• Identical materials, except female and male names
• Assessed competence and desirability as employee
• Made recommendations re: salary and mentoring
• Results: for every variable, gender made a difference

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 Competence, hireability, and mentoring by student gender condition (collapsed across
faculty gender).

Corinne A. Moss-Racusin et al. PNAS 2012;109:16474-

16479

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©2012 by National Academy of Sciences
 Salary conferral by student gender condition (collapsed across faculty gender).

Corinne A. Moss-Racusin et al. PNAS 2012;109:16474-

16479

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©2012 by National Academy of Sciences
SPEAKER INTRODUCTIONS AT INTERNAL MEDICINE GRAND
ROUNDS: FORMS OF ADDRESS REVEAL GENDER BIAS (FILES,
J.A. ET AL, J OF WOMEN’S HEALTH, 2017).
• Observational study of video-archived speaker introductions at consecutive IMGR
• Two different locations (Arizona, Minnesota)
• Introducers and speakers were physician and scientist peers w/ MD, PhD or MD/PhD
• 321 forms of address analyzed
• Women introduced by men less likely to be addressed by professional title than men
introduced by men
• Female introducers more likely to use professional titles when introducing any
speaker compared with men (96.2% vs. 65.6%)
• Females introducers/ female speakers = 97.8%
• Female introducers/male speakers = 95%
• Male introducers/female speakers = 49.2%
• Male introducers/male speakers = 72.4%

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IMPLICIT BIAS AND LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

(CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY JOB APPLICANTS)

SCHMADER, T., WHITEHEAD, J., & WYSOCKI, V.H. (2007)

Women
• Shorter, less record-focused
• Grindstone Adjectives
• Attributed to effort
• Hardworking, dependable,
dedicated, meticulous
• More gendered focused terms
used
• “intelligent young lady”
• “insightful woman”
• More “doubt raisers” in women’s
letters
Men
• Focused more on
accomplishments
• Standout Adjectives
• Attributed to ability
• Excellent, superb,
outstanding, unique
• Men are more often described
with superlatives re: ability

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IMPLICIT BIAS AND PARENTAL STATUS
• Mothers 43% less likely than non-mothers to be
recommended for hire
• Mothers rated as less competent and promotable
• Mothers less likely to be recommended for management
• Mothers given lower recommended starting salaries
• Call back rate 2.1 times higher for non-mothers vs. mothers
• Fathers were not penalized and in some cases actually
benefitted from parental status

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EVALUATION OF IDENTICAL CVS: GENDER
• When evaluating identical
application packages, male and
female University psychology
professors preferred 2:1 to hire Karen
“Brian” over “Karen” as an
assistant professor. Brian

• When evaluating a more

experienced record (at the point
of promotion to tenure),
reservations were expressed
four times more often when the
name was female.

Steinpreis, Anders, & Ritzke (1999) Sex Roles, 41, 509.

ARE EMILY & GREG MORE
EMPLOYABLE THAN LAKISHA &
JAMAL?
• Study of actual racial hiring bias in Chicago and Boston
• Resumes sent to actual want ads
• 4 resumes per position – 2 “high” quality and 2 “low” quality
• African American sounding names assigned to one high quality and one low quality

• Primary measurement was the “callback” rate

• Results: people with "white-sounding" names are 50 percent
more likely to get a response to their resume than are those with
"black-sounding" names.

Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, Are Emily and Greg More
Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? Field Experiment on Labor Market
Discrimination, 94 Am. Econ. Rev. 991 (2004).
Milkman, Akinola & Chugh, 2015 (cont.)

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 Best Practices
• What does your ad/website/literature look like? Is it welcoming and
inclusive?

• Where are you recruiting and advertising?

• Who is on your committee?

• Have you taken the IAT or similar tests? (implicit.harvard.edu)

• Have you developed clear criteria or a rubric? How was it developed? Who
was on board?

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 Assess your rubrics!

RELATE BY ZENDESH 16
BEST PRACTICES

• Decide ahead of time on fair and objective selection criteria

• Use standardized interviews – don’t go by “fit”

• Apply criteria to applicants (sounds simple enough….it

isn’t!)

• Allow sufficient time for application review and discussion

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IS THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA A WELCOMING AND
INCLUSIVE PLACE?

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE IT MORE SO?

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 REFERENCES/RESOURCES
• Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2014). What Does My Headscarf Mean to You? TED Talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/yassmin_abdel_magied_what_does_my_headscarf_mean_to_you?language=en
• Banaji, M.R. & Greenwald, A.G. (2013). Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People. Delacourt Press: New York, NY.
• Banchefsky, Sarah et al (2015). But You Don't Look Like A Scientist!: Women Scientists with Feminine Appearance are Deemed Less Likely to be Scientists.
https://www.researchgate.net/directory/publications
• Bertrand, M. & Mullainathan, S. (2004) Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination. American
Economic Review, v94 (4, Sep), 991-1013.
• Chapman, E.N. (2013). Physicians and Implicit Bias: How Doctors May Unwittingly Perpetuate Health Care Disparities. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 28(11);
1504-1510.
• Dovidio, J.F. & Fiske, S.T. (2012). Under the Radar: How Unexamined Biases in Decision-Making Processes in Clinical Interactions Can Contribute to Health Care
Disparities. American Journal of Public Health, v. 102(5), 945-952.
• Feagin J. & Benenefield, Z (2014). Systemic Racism in U.S. Health Care. Social Science and Medicine. 103; 7-14.
• Funchess, Melanie (2014). Implicit Bias – how it affects us and how we push through. TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr8G7MtRNlk
• Goldin, C. & Rouse, C. (2000). Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of "Blind" Auditions on Female Musicians. The American Economic Review, 90, 4, 715-741.
• Green, A.R. et al (2007). Implicit Bias Among Physicians and its Prediction of Thrombolysis Decisions for Black and White Patients. Journal of General Internal
Medicine, Sep 22(9), 1231-1238.
• Greenwald, A.G., Poehlman, T.A., Uhlmann, E.L., & Banaji, M.R. (2009). Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-Analysis of Predictive
Validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, v. 71 (1); 17-41.
• Milkman, K.L., Akinola, M., & Chugh, D. (2015). What Happens Before? A Field Experiment Exploring How Pay and Representation Differentially Shape Bias on the
Pathway Into Organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, v. 100 (6); 1678-1712.
• Moss-Rascusin, C.A., Dovidio, J.F., Brescoll, V.L., Graham, M.J., Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, v. 109 (41); 16474-16479.
• Myers, Verna (2014). How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them. TED Talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/verna_myers_how_to_overcome_our_biases_walk_boldly_toward_them?language=en

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REFERENCES/RESOURCES
• Project Implicit (Implicit Association Test): https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
• Schmader, T., Whitehead, J., & Wysocki, V.H. (2007). A Linguistic Comparison of Letters of Recommendation for Male and Female
Chemistry and Biochemistry Job Applicants. Sex Roles, 57(7-8): 509-514.
• Schwartz, M.B. et al. (2003). Weight Bias Among Health Professionals Specializing in Obesity. Obesity Research, 11(9); 1033-9.
• State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review 2016. Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, The Ohio State University:
http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/researchandstrategicinitiatives/implicit-bias-review/
• Steinpreis, R.E., Anders, K.A. & Ritzke, D. (1999). The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure
Candidates: A National Empirical Study. Sex Roles, v41(7/8); 509-528.
• The Joint Commission (2016). Implicit bias in health care. Quick Safety Issue.
• Tilcsik, A. (2011). Pride and Prejudice: Employment Discrimination against Openly Gay Men in the United States. American Journal of
Sociology, v. 117 (2) ; 586-626.
• Trix, F. & Psenka, C. (2003). Exploring the Color of Glass: Letters of Recommendation for Female and Male Medical Faculty. Discourse &
Society, v.14(2), 191-220.
• Turnbull, Helen (2013). Inclusion, Exclusion, Illusion and Collusion. TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdV8OpXhl2g
• Van Ryn M., et al (2011). The Impact of Racism on Clinical Cognition, Behavior, and Clinical Decision Making. DuBois Review. 8(1): 199-
218
• What You Don’t Know: The Science of Unconscious Bias and What To Do About it in the Search and Recruitment Process. Association of
American Medical Colleges. https://www.aamc.org/members/leadership/catalog/178420/unconscious_bias.html
• Who, Me? Biased? The New York Times (2016). https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000004818663/peanut-butter-jelly-and-racism.html

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IMPLICIT BIAS & RESPONDING EFFECTIVELY
TO MISTREATMENT
 Responding Effectively to Mistreatment

Key
Silent collusion – being complicit by staying silent

Concepts Bystander – a person who is present but not involved

Upstander – a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or

cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person being
attacked or bullied

Microaggression – a statement, action, or incident regarded as an

instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against
members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
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 SCENARIO ONE

“My name is Abdisalan and I’ve been a student here for three years. People struggle with
my name, so I’ve shortened it up to Abdi, but they still say they can’t remember it or can’t
get it right. One of the faculty members calls me Abraham, always with a chuckle. And
recently, when a person named Hashim started in our program, that faculty member said,
‘I’m sorry, but I’ll never keep these names straight - I’m just gonna go with old Abraham
and new Abraham.’”

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
— 23 —
 SCENARIO TWO

You’ve been invited to serve on your department’s Hiring Committee and you’ve happily
agreed to do so. During your first meeting, the chair of the committee says, “Wow – we
finally got some diversity applicants! And some of them actually look halfway decent.”

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
— 24 —
 SCENARIO THREE

A black female administrative assistant, who previously had short hair, comes into work
one morning with long braids. She receives some compliments on her new hairstyle, but
also intrusive questions about how it grew so fast and if it is “hers.” That afternoon an
older white male co-worker reaches out and touches it. He also says in a joking tone,
“Does this make you uncomfortable?” Shocked, she says, “No,” but she is visibly upset.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
— 25 —
 HOW TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO MISTREATMENT
Speak up
Avoid humor

Ask the person to While it might be a natural reaction to laugh or make a joke when you feel
explain what they uncomfortable, laughter or humor might be seen as validation or reinforcement
meant of the comment or action.

Indicate that the Call out their action or impact of their action. Instead of saying, “You are being
situation is racist”, instead try, “The way that you spoke to your nurse regarding her race is
uncomfortable disrespectful and will not be tolerated at UIHC”.

Avoid personal attacks The person who was mistreated is not responsible for educating someone
every time. By stepping in, you can help reduce the burden on the person who
was mistreated.
Consider making the
situation a teachable
moment

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
— 26 —
 HOW TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO MISTREATMENT

Support Say something

Feel empowered to stand up against mistreatment. We are
responsible for making UIHC and our communities welcoming and inclusive.
Validate Showing the person who was mistreated that you saw what happened
can be a powerful, supportive action.

Ask Allow the person who was mistreated to speak up for themselves if they wish.

Allow the person to remove themselves from the situation if they feel uncomfortable in
the moment. Invite the person who was mistreated to share their feelings if they feel
comfortable doing so.

Ask how you can help.

Try to focus on the feelings of the person who was mistreated rather than on your own
feelings.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
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 THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

WE HOPE YOU FEEL EMPOWERED TO STAND UP

AGAINST MISTREATMENT THE NEXT TIME YOU
SEE IT.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
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 Questions, Comments, or Concerns?

We are here for you!

Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

Email: medicine-diversity@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319) 384-2952

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

medicine.uiowa.edu/diversity
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