Implicit Bias Assessment Preparation

In this assessment, you are considering the origins of implicit bias, which is also called
automatic prejudice.

Background
Implicit biases or unconscious biases, or also known as automatic prejudices, are those that
happen outside of our awareness because they have become so much a part of us that we do
not notice them. For example, we may show a preference for people who have similar
backgrounds or other similarities to us, and experience negativity to those with whom we do not
share similarities. We may express verbal acceptance of a certain group, yet act in way that
exhibits a prejudice based on a stereotype or unconscious belief. There are various reasons
that these automatic, out of awareness responses develop.

Our Blaine and Brenchley Understanding the Psychology of Diversity textbook discusses
various reasons that prejudices become automatic, or out of our awareness.

You will find the following sections of the textbook helpful in better understanding the origins of
automatic prejudice. Read or review the chapter sections and brief explanations below before
beginning your assessment:

• Chapter 2, “Categorization and Stereotyping.”

• Chapter 4, “Prejudice: Evaluating Social Difference.”

Below are some of the factors presented by Blaine and Brenchley in chapter 4 of our
Understanding the Psychology of Diversity textbook available on your VitalSource Bookshelf.
You may find other valuable information or concepts in the textbook or other sources to help
support your analysis on your worksheet.

Social Learning Factors

According to Blaine and Brenchley (2018), the origins of an automatic component of
prejudice, or implicit bias, can come from the same socialization through which we acquire
stereotypes (see Chapter 2). No matter how well-intentioned we may be to be fair-minded and
nonprejudiced, we are still aware of stereotypes held about groups (Devine, as cited in Blaine &
Brenchley, 2018). When we internalize these beliefs or stereotypes, we also internalize negative
emotional responses to those groups based on those stereotypes, often without our awareness
(Blaine & Brenchley, 2018). The beliefs and responses become automated, and when we
encounter a member of the group our negative emotions again operate outside our
conscientious control.

Neurocognitive Factors
Supporting the social learning factors described above, neurocognitive factors are at play when
we internalize our socialization. As describe in Blaine and Brenchley, chapter 2, categorization
and other processes are controlled by the amygdala, where emotionally significant information
is processed. However, “prejudice is associated with higher level brain activity. Researchers

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have used functional fMRI technology to show that the reasoning underlying in-group favoritism,
wherein we advantage in-groups over out-groups on a variety of outcomes, occurs in the medial
prefrontal cortex area of the brain” (Volz, Kessler, & von Cramon, 2009, as cited in Blaine &
Brenchley, 2018, p. 65). This is significant as we look to understand how prejudice occurs
through this higher order cognitive activity.

Controlled Components (Personal Beliefs)

Blaine and Brenchley (2018) describe that in “contrast, the controlled component of
prejudice reflects one’s own beliefs about people from other groups. Personal social beliefs—
the controlled component of prejudice—are usually based on our personal experience with
socially different people as well as larger social/ethical principles (e.g., humanitarianism) that we
may adopt as adults. In short, the prejudicial impulses that most of us inherit from our
socialization process are only part of the prejudice equation. Automatic prejudices can be
overcome, through effort and diligence, with more positive, enlightened, and fair-minded beliefs
about people from other groups” (p. 65).

Justification-Suppression Model of Prejudice

Prejudice is also expressed when our inner feelings and impulses toward socially different
others are either insufficiently suppressed or sufficiently justified. According to the justification–
suppression model of prejudice, the socialization process, in which parents, peers, television,
and popular culture all have a role, equips us with negative attitudes and beliefs about people
from various racial, ethnic, and religious groups (Crandall & Eshleman, 2003, as cited in Blaine
& Brenchley, 2018, p. 65).

As adults, we are aware that expressing prejudice socially inappropriate and that discrimination
is illegal (Blaine & Brenchley, 2018). “Therefore, we learn how to inhibit and suppress our
negative impulses so that they remain undetected. We suppress our prejudice by various
means, including avoiding members of the disliked group, exerting control over our own
thoughts, or simply denying that we are prejudiced. Prejudice, in this view, is a well-learned (to
the point of being automatic) and natural response to social difference over which we learn to
exert pragmatic control” (Blaine & Brenchley, 2018, p. 65).

Instructions
After reviewing chapters 2 and 4 in Understanding the Psychology of Diversity, use the PSYC-
FPX3540 Implicit Bias Worksheet to complete your work.

1. Think about situations where you have observed implicit bias at work or in the media.
An internet search may help you identify types of bias and how you can spot them in
real-life situations or in the media (whether real life or fictional). You will be discussing
one of these in the worksheet.

2. Consider a personal experience where you may have experienced implicit bias directed
toward you, or where you have acted on implicit bias yourself. You will describe one of
these in the worksheet.

3. Use your Blaine and Brenchley Understanding the Psychology of Diversity textbook and
other professional and scholarly sources to support your discussion of the implicit bias

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 incidents, and to support your recommended strategies for intervening in implicit bias.
Cite and reference your sources in APA format.

Reference
Blaine, B. E., & Brenchley, K. J. (2018). Understanding the psychology of diversity (4th ed.).
Sage.