Professor’s Research, KSU, Focuses On Reducing Implicit Bias In The Workplace

Press release from Kennesaw State University:

Nov 18, 2020

Professor’s research focuses on reducing implicit bias in the workplace

Tracie Stewart

KENNESAW, Ga.
(Nov 18, 2020) — Having a biased perspective about someone without realizing it can have a profound
negative impact on productivity, efficiency and relationships in the workplace, according
to Kennesaw State University psychology professor Tracie Stewart.

“Implicit, or unconscious, biases are stereotypes and prejudices that are activated
automatically, unintentionally and outside of our awareness,” Stewart said. “They
are biases that we have but don’t realize we have, and they can be based on a person’s
race, gender, age, religion and/or sexual orientation. In my research, I have never
found anyone who has no biases of any kind on the unconscious level, but fortunately
there are ways to reduce, if not eradicate, implicit bias and its negative effects
in our workplaces.”

Stewart’s research has focused on the prevalence and consequences of implicit racial
and gender bias in the workplace and the ways in which people can identify their unconscious
biases as one step toward effecting change in their communities. A portion of Stewart’s
research tested how people show biases in job interviews.

“The effects of unconscious bias in the workplace actually start in interviews,” Stewart
said, citing a series of studies that measured implicit gender bias for a subset of
male workplace leaders. Their interviews with female candidates were recorded and
played back for a set of evaluators who did not know the interviewers’ implicit bias
scores. The studies found that the higher the male interviewer’s level of implicit
gender bias, the worse evaluators rated the female interviewee’s performance.

“So, in other words, if the male interviewer expected a female interview to perform
poorly, his actions actually undermined her performance,” Stewart said. “As for the
interview actions that caused these effects, research has found that the higher an
interviewer’s level of implicit racial or gender bias, the less eye contact they make
with interviewees for whose group they hold biases, the farther away they sit, and
the quicker they end the interview altogether.”

To address implicit biases in the workplace, Stewart has developed a technique known
as Situational Attribution Training to help rewire the brain to reduce implicit bias.
According to Stewart, the practice is designed to train people to consider multiple
possible attributions for colleagues’ behaviors for which they might otherwise have
automatically jumped to a stereotypic explanation.

“If a female colleague raises her voice in a meeting, she is often judged as ‘emotional,’
whereas if a male colleague raises his voice, he tends to be seen as ‘assertive,’”
Stewart said. “Our technique disrupts these automatic stereotypic judgments through
training to consider not just one, but multiple possible attributions for that action.
Our goal is to increase people’s judgment choices versus people having judgments made
for them, unconsciously, by their implicit biases.”

Stewart also has developed the TRiMM Model – which stands for transform, reduce, manage
and mitigate – to address implicit biases. Following these steps over time can allow
for greater success both relationally and professionally, she explained.

“We have found in research studies that identifying and intentionally examining the
personal and institutional biases that we all hold – instead of ignoring them – can
lead to so many benefits, including greater productivity, innovation and equity in
the workplace,” Stewart said. “We have to keep in mind that we’re all works in progress.
We have to choose the journey toward growing ourselves and our organizations into
what we want them to be.”

To hear more from Stewart, listen to the “Thought Provoking” podcast that spotlights research and expertise from KSU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

– Josh Milton

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers more than 150 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 41,000 students. With 11 colleges on two metro Atlanta campuses, Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia and the second-largest university in the state. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the region and from 126 countries across the globe. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 6 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.

This press release was produced by Kennesaw State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.