How to Recognize and Address Unconscious Bias

Abstract

Despite the dramatic increase in the number of women and racial minorities pursuing careers in medicine, their representation among medical school faculty remains strikingly low. One potential explanation for this disparity is unconscious bias: opinions that we hold about different social groups that operate outside of our conscious awareness. During the past few decades, social scientists have discovered that unconscious bias can strongly influence the way we evaluate and treat other people. For that reason, it is important to understand what unconscious bias is and how it might influence one's career. Enough time has passed such that "pipeline" explanations cannot explain these disparities. In fact, the data for women's career advancement in academic medicine show greater resemblance to a funnel than a pipeline (see Fig. 49.1). We believe that until individuals and institutions address the issue of unconscious bias, faculty from underrepresented groups will continue to have a difficult time climbing the academic ladder. The aim of this chapter is to help the academic physician identify and understand unconscious bias so that he or she may take steps to prevent it from negatively influencing his or her career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)