The best way to reduce unconscious biases is to become aware of them. Overview When engaging with a new person, we very quickly process their ethnicity, gender, age, and disability even before we are aware of doing so. This identity information is then labelled and connected to stereotypical knowledge about the group of people sharing the label. This can then influence the way we act toward this person, and in essence we may end up treating them as a label rather than an individual. When we do this without being aware of it, we are acting according to unconscious biases. To be able to meet and mentor a person, especially when this person comes from an underrepresented minority, it is essential that we examine our unconscious biases, so that we can act against them and treat and listen to our mentee as an individual and not a label. Theoretical perspectives Unconscious biases are rooted in how our brain likes to make shortcuts when making decisions. They are based on stereotypes, which have been internalised either through personal experience or media. Unconscious bias develops at an early age (Dore, 2014), have real world effects on behaviour (Dasgupta, 2004), but their effect can be minimised by examining our choices (Dasgupta, 2013; Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2013). To provide a concrete example, we might believe that people from a particular culture or race are particularly good or bad at a specific subject, or that people of a particular gender have certain interests. In mentoring this can have real effects on the support and developmental opportunities we give. For instance, a mentor that unconsciously holds the view that women are not interested in STEM, might not highlight an opportunity to a female mentee, whereas they would have done so to a male mentee. This is just one example, but we can imagine many more. It is therefore essential when mentoring people of different backgrounds, such as people from underrepresented minorities, to challenge your own unconscious biases to ensure you see them as individuals with interest and needs that are unique to them (e.g. Cobb-Roberts et al. 2017; Auguste et al., 2022). References Auguste, M., Jolimeau, H.B., Lauture, C. & Winchell, M. (2022). Black students have the last word: How white faculty can sustain black lives in the university. In Mentoring while white: culturally responsive practices for sustaining the lives of black college students. Edited by Butler, Bettie Ray, et al. Lexington books. Cobb-Roberts, D., Esnard, T., Unterreiner, A., Agosto, V., Karanxha, Z., Beck, M., & Wu, K. (2017). Race, Gender and Mentoring in Higher Education. SAGE Publications Ltd, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526402011 Dasgupta, N. (2004). Implicit ingroup favoritism, outgroup favoritism, and their behavioral manifestations. Social Justice Research, 17(2), 143-169. Dasgupta, N. (2013). Implicit attitudes and beliefs adapt to situations: a decade of research on the malleability of implicit prejudice, stereotypes, and the self-concept. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 233-279. Dasgupta, N, Greenwald, A. G. (2001). On the malleability of automatic attitudes: combating automatic prejudice with images of admired and disliked individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5), 800-814. Dore, R. A., Hoffman, K. M., Lillard, A. S., & Trawalter, S. (2014). Children's racial bias in perceptions of others' pain. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 32, 218–231. Context for mentoring African International Students When mentoring African International Students, the mentee is most likely to fall into a number of identity groups; they are international students, they are likely people of colour, and might have a different financial background to some other students. They, therefore, inhabit a large set of identities that have associated stereotypes. For instance, as a student of colour the mentee likely have experiences resulting from this, such as discrimination or racism. While most people do not have explicit biases toward people of colour, there may be unconscious biases that are internalised through media and other spaces. There are many other possible biases that you might unconsciously hold in the mentoring space with your mentee, and it is essential that you try to identify them early on, so that you can mitigate them and build a meaningful and respectful mentoring relationship. This way you can see the individual that your mentee is, while still understanding that the mentee is likely to experience actions as a result of unconscious and sometimes conscious biases in their everyday life. Practical suggestions The main way to battle unconscious biases is to recognise that we have them. Spending time learning about yourself as a mentor and your way of seeing things can help mitigate your biases. So can slowing down and considering why you are saying what you are, or acting the way you do in the mentoring relationship. Are you recommending a certain strategy or asking a specific question because it will be helpful to the individual sitting across from you, or because someone who looks like them might appreciate the question. Being mindful and conscious about your actions are key in mitigating bias. What more can we do: Educate yourself – there are many great resources on unconscious biases; quite a few are linked below. Spending time appreciating the scope of the challenge can help you become more aware. Practice self-awareness – in order to recognise your biases, you must become aware of what your taken-for-granted assumptions about people are. Reflection is a great tool to examine your reasons. Protect time to examine what biases you might have toward people who share identity characteristics with your mentee. Expand your social network. The more experiences of different cultures you have, the more you can appreciate how different people are. From this knowledge, it can be easier to meet your mentee as an individual and not a member of their identity group. Seek feedback. It is easier to see biases in others than it is in ourselves, so getting feedback from trusted peers can help us mitigate our biases. Question cultural stereotypes. Reflect on decisions. Spend time reflecting after sessions about why you made the decisions you did in the meeting – if some of them came from a bias, plan a way to mitigate this in future sessions. Useful links Unconscious bias training Bias examples and how to avoid them Unconscious bias and implicit bias Imperial College London: Unconscious bias This article was published on 2024-06-24
