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Implicit Bias
Implicit biases, also referred to as unconscious biases are often unintentional beliefs or attitudes that influence a person’s comprehension and actions towards a certain social group (Greenwald et al., p. 950). Due to the unconscious nature of this bias, it often happens without one knowing as opposed to explicit bias that one can control. Most people experience an implicit bias without noticing. Over the past years, companies and organizations have started paying attention to this bias due to its proliferation in places of work and its repulsive effects on the performance of organizations.
Implicit bias affects one’s professional life in different ways. In places of work, there are different forms of implicit bias that may affect the performance and morale of an employee. Most managers exhibit affinity bias, a form of implicit bias at work. Affinity bias is that in which a person prefers those he deems similar to him in terms of character and attitude (Greenwald et al., p. 950). This kind of bias may elicit prejudice against some staff hence reducing their morale. It may also spark in wars between the staff who may feel that certain employees are being favored. Another type of bias that manifests at work is beauty bias in which people base their opinions depending on a person’s look (Greenwald et al., p. 950). This bias negatively affects the performance of employees considered to be having awful looks.
While working as an electronics associate at Walmart, I have experienced several cases of implicit bias. The most common case always occurs when we have our associate meetings on the first Friday of each month. During these meetings, being the youngest associate, I would be unconditionally given the role of writing down minutes of the meeting while every other person attending is also legible for noting down the minutes. It is human nature that the younger ones are tasked with daunting tasks.
Works Cited
Greenwald, Anthony G., and Linda Hamilton Krieger. “Implicit bias: Scientific foundations.” California Law Review 94.4 (2006): 945-967.