The End of Bias: A Beginning

The End of Bias is a transformative, groundbreaking exploration into how we can eradicate unintentional bias and discrimination, the great issue of our age, from acclaimed science and culture journalist Jessica Nordell.Implicit bias: persistent, unintentional prejudiced behavior that clashes with our consciously held beliefs. We know that it exists, to corrosive and even lethal effect. We see it in schools, where teachers are more likely to find slim children intelligent. We see it in medicine, where women-especially women of color-receive less pain treatment than men. And as we know from the police killings of so many Black people in America, bias can be deadly. But are we able to step beyond recognition of our prejudice to actually change it?With over ten years' immersion in the topic, Jessica Nordell digs deep into the cognitive science, social psychology, and developmental research that underpin current efforts to change unintentional bias by changing our behavior. She examines diversity training, deployed across the land as a corrective but with dubious results. She then explores what works and why: the meditation used at a police department in Oregon that helps officers transform their emotional responses; the diagnostic checklist adopted by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital to prevent bias in treatment; and the preschool in Sweden, where teachers are trained to avoid stereotyping children.Biased behavior can be changed, and we already know how to do it.Includes illustrated charts.