Unconscious bias trainings that work

Is your organization providing unconscious bias training? Are you sure it’s effective?

Trainings related to DEI, including workshops on unconscious bias, are becoming a more common praxis, also in Poland.

However, such trainings should be looked at with a critical eye.

The strongest conclusion drawn from one of the most comprehensive meta-analysies* of over 1000 studies on effectiveness of DEI trainings - was “the dearth of evidence” as to whether they work.

Unconscious bias trainings that focus only on raising awareness don’t work and they need to be re-designed with some de-biasing techniques that proved to be effective*.

Here are some tools I’ve also used during my unconscious bias training.

1.     Perspective taking

It’s a technique that involves enabling participants to step into someone else's shoes, adopt their viewpoint, and grasp their perspective. Increasing empathy for another person perspective has proven to be effective.

2.     Consider the opposite

It’s an approach that encourages participants to play the devil’s advocate with themselves and generating counterarguments to challenge their own thoughts, including their final conclusions.

3.     Flip It To Test It

It’s a simple method to check on biases by mentally flipping or swapping the person in any given scenario with his or her opposite to see if it sounds weird. If the “flipped” result feels weird, you may have uncovered a bias.

De-biasing on individual level needs to be grounded in structural changes that the organization introduces. Reducing the possibility of bias in the processes like recruitment, hiring, promotion needs to give a framework to the personal decisions.

Are unconscious bias trainings provided in your organization contain these or other de-biasing techniques?

*Paluck and Green “Prejudice Reduction: What Works? A Review and Assessment of Research and Practice”

*Babock and Loewenstein “Explaining Bargaining Impasse: The Role of Self-Serving Biases”