How does unconscious bias work?
September 9 2024
I stepped on a few toes when I called out fellow jury members for unconscious bias. Backlash is never nice, but fighting discrimination is more important, and I would do it again.
A few years ago I was part of a jury. Our job was to select three climate positive business ideas, who would receive a monetary prize to start their business. A cool concept, that had attracted many student teams eager to make impact. In the first round we had judged the business ideas on paper. In the second round, the top seven, - five white men, one white woman, and one woman of Asian descent - could present their ideas to the jury live. The scores were added to select three winners. The best business idea in the first round was from the young woman of Asian descent. Yet after the second round, the live presentation, she didn’t even make it to the top three! How did that happen? This could have been explained if she had had a blackout, failed in answering questions, or read everything from paper. But none of that had happened. It was a solid presentation. How could it be explained?
When we think of a successful entrepreneur, we think of white men like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or Richard Branson. The Quote 500 is filled with white men. It is only natural that when we imagine the next successful entrepreneur, our brain involuntarily brings up these images. So when selecting a winner, that is what we look for. This is unconscious bias. I have it too. We all have it. Anyone who has ever done a computer test on unconscious bias, where you must make choices in a split seconds, knows that your brain takes short cuts. Being aware of that is so important before making decisions. Otherwise we involuntarily discriminate, and reinforce the status quo.
This I explained to my fellow jury members, asking them to reconsider, in case they thought it might have played a role in their choice. Addressing this is delicate. Without a doubt they had all meant well. And even though I had stressed, that I knew they all meant well, many reactions were defensive. ‘ Nonsense!’ , ‘ I should have had them in higher regard.’ But some were brave enough to look at their own patterns and think this through, and even thanked me for bringing it up. In the end, we could all hand in our top three again, and the young woman of Asian descent did make it, and could start her business with prize money.
Unconscious bias on the basis of gender, race or sexual orientation, still is a big problem in recruitment in investing, and many other areas. If we want to change anything, it is so important to be aware of our own unconscious bias, and address it when we see it happening! Even if that means ruffling a few feathers.