The unconscious mind is amazing.
It can process vastly more information than our
conscious mind by using shortcuts based on
our background, cultural environment, and personal
experiences to make almost instantaneous decisions
about everything around us.
The snag is it's wrong quite a lot of the time.
Especially on matters that need rational thinking.
Here is a classic example.
A bat and a ball cost £1.10.
If the bat costs £1 more than the ball,
how much does the ball cost?
Most people, including over 50% of students at
some of the world’s leading universities get
the answer wrong and say 10 pence.
The answer is actually 5 pence.
Many of us choose 10 pence without thinking.
This is because our unconscious mind uses instinct,
not analysis.
So our unconscious is fallible.
It's also biased.
It makes snap judgements of people we meet,
categorising them according to gender, social
and other characteristics.
In milliseconds we judge whether somebody is like us
and belongs to our 'in group'.
These are the people we favour.
So men might favour men, while women might
favour women.
However, we can belong to different 'in groups'
and we like to be part of an 'in group that's
powerful, which could mean a woman favouring
a man over a woman.
That's unconscious bias.
All of us have it and it colours our decisions
without our realising.
For example, research reveals that if I were a man,
you would be more likely to be nodding in agreement
right now, because people pay more attention
to a male voice.
The Royal Society fosters excellence in science
but this can only be achieved if we select from the
widest range of talent, and that’s not possible
if unconscious bias is narrowing down the field
for non-scientific reasons.
To lessen the impact of unconscious bias, which
is easier for us to notice in others, we are
raising the awareness of unconscious bias to
members of our selection and appointment panels.
We are encouraging panel members to deliberately
slow down decision making, reconsider reasons
for decisions, question cultural stereotypes and
monitor each other for unconscious bias.
We can't cure unconscious bias but with self
awareness, we can address it.
