Mitigating Bias & Discrimination

Mitigating Bias

Acknowledging our own biases is a crucial step in mitigating bias, but it also presents one of the greatest challenges in self-discovery and self-understanding because it forces us to look directly at our own flaws. However, it helps us to better understand how we may be hurting ourselves and those around us. Curious about your own biases? Take the Harvard Implicit Bias Test.

Learn More:

• General Principles for Reducing Bias (APA Style) This link opens in a new window
• Unconscious Bias Training (UCSF) This link opens in a new window
• Eight tactics to identify and reduce your implicit biases (American Academy of Family Physicians) This link opens in a new window
• Reducing Bias in Your Writing (U of Arkansas) This link opens in a new window
• Strategies to Reduce the Influence of Implicit Bias (Yale) This link opens in a new window
• Five Ways to Reduce Racial Bias in Your Children (Greater Good Magazine) This link opens in a new window

Reducing Bias in the Workplace

There are many steps that employers and employees can take to reduce bias at work. Building a diverse workforce is a key component, but it is only the start. To reduce bias in the workplace consider the following:

• Understand how implicit (and explicit) biases affect the workplace including:
  • Affinity bias: unconscious tendency to get along with others who are like us.
  • Halo effect: a cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their character.
  • Perception bias: tendency to form simplistic stereotypes and assumptions about certain groups of people.
  • Confirmation bias: tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.
  • Groupthink: the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.
• Be able to identify your personal implicit biases.
• Update hiring practices including:
  • Diversify the hiring committee
  • Create clear compensation policies 
• Commit to cultural awareness training.
• Commit to Implicit bias training.
• Begin and/or evaluate mentoring programs.

Learn More:

• 10 Ways to Mitigate Bias in Your Company’s Decision Making (HBR) This link opens in a new window
• Mitigating bias in performance management (Deloitte) This link opens in a new window
• The Impact of Biases and How to Prevent Their Interference in the Workplace (Insight into Diversity) This link opens in a new window

Mitigating Human Bias in AI

"AI has the potential to help humans make fairer decisions - but only if we carefully work towards fairness in AI systems as well" (Silberg & Manyika, 2019). AI has become more prevalent in our society, but like most technology, it is only as good as the humans who create it. Therefore, if humans have implicit biases the AI will too. The resources below discuss this issue and ways to reduce bias in AI.

Learn More:

• Machines and Trust: How to Mitigate AI Bias (Toptal) This link opens in a new window
• What Do We Do About the Biases in AI? (HBR) This link opens in a new window
• Algorithmic bias detection and mitigation: Best practices and policies to reduce consumer harms (Brookings) This link opens in a new window
• Tackling bias in artificial intelligence (and in humans) (McKinsey & Company) This link opens in a new window

Reducing Bias in Healthcare

According to the Center for American Progress, "The United States is home to stark and persistent racial disparities in health coverage, chronic health conditions, mental health, and mortality" (Carratala & Maxwell, 2020). Their fact sheet on Health Disparities by Race and Ethnicity contains data covering many areas such as health insurance coverage, chronic conditions, and access to mental healthcare. The image below is from a CDC report on prgnancy-related deaths. The report showed that Black women have a higher mortality rate than other races. Visit the resources below to learn more about bias in healthcare and how it can be addressed.

Source: CDC. Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Deaths — United States, 2007–2016

Learn More:

• Implicit Bias and Racial Disparities in Health Care (American Bar Association) This link opens in a new window
• Racial Bias Found in a Major Health Care Risk Algorithm (Scientific American) This link opens in a new window
• Implicit Biases Have an Explicit Impact on Healthcare Outcomes (The American Journal of Managed Care) This link opens in a new window
• How implicit bias harms patient care (Medical Economics) This link opens in a new window
• How to Reduce Implicit Bias (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) This link opens in a new window
• Everyday solutions to reduce implicit bias in health care (Healio) This link opens in a new window
• Five strategies to combat unconscious bias (Nursing Center) This link opens in a new window
• Reducing Implicit Bias in Healthcare (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) This link opens in a new window

References

Carrratala, S. & Maxwell, C.. (2020, May 7). Health disparities by race and ethnicity. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2020/05/07/484742/health-disparities-race-ethnicity/ This link opens in a new window