Mahazarin R. Banaji, PhD, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, visited Duke Medicine on Thurs., Feb. 14 and gave the presentation "Blind Spot: The Hidden Biases of Good People."
Laura Svetkey, MD, MHS, vice chair for faculty development and diversity and professor of medicine (Nephrology), had this note to share:
Dr. Banaji gave a fascinating, entertaining and ultimately self-revealing workshop on unconscious bias - even in egalitarians. She made it clear that we all have them, we can't cure them, but if we're more aware of them, we can avoid letting them affect our decisions and actions.
A quick way to understand her message is to take the anonymous Implicit Association Test (IAT) at www.implicit.harvard.edu. Your personal results may be enlightening...and no one else needs to see them.
See also: Blind Spot by Banaji and Greenwald, Delacorte Press 2013.