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Affinity bias3/6/2023 It is important to remember that all people are different and different minds offer unique and fresh perspectives in a productive work environment. Unconscious biases influence people's actions which can prevent diverse cultures from entering the workplace. Part of the development of a healthy workplace is including diversity and culture. Leaders of the business are in charge of creating a healthy, productive workplace. Biases Prevent Diversity and Culture in the Workplace This can hurt team morale and push employees away from the business. The downside to this is that certain employees will receive this unfair treatment despite not having any of their work performance taken into consideration. For example, if leadership is affected by an unchecked unconscious bias, then they can create unfair advantages or disadvantages for employees affected by that bias. Unconscious biases can have a negative effect on a team. Unconscious Biases Can Create Unfair Disadvantages Therefore, it is easier to recognize and address if a person is treating others unfairly with bad intentions. This means that we are aware of our decision-making. On the other hand, employment discrimination happens in our conscious state. Unconscious biases happen without us being aware of it, and so our actions are sometimes not ill-intended. Is Unconscious Bias in the Workplace Illegal?Īs stated above, unconscious bias is different from employment discrimination, which is against the law. But why is it important? Below, let's take a look at why a business should acknowledge that unconscious bias should be avoided in the workplace. Recognizing unconscious bias in the workplace is important. By understanding the various unconscious biases, a company manager can raise awareness in the workplace to be more inclusive of members to create a more diverse work environment. Implicit bias can be hard to address because they happen without you realizing it, hence the name "unconscious" bias. For leaders in management positions, this could pose as a big problem since companies are prohibited from discriminating during the recruitment process or when considering an employee for a promotion. This could lead to a human discriminating or treating other people unfairly without them realizing it. Misinformation and stereotypes can have a negative effect on our attitudes. However, sometimes in our conscious state, our brains are exposed to misinformation and stereotypes. Typically, this is meant to help us familiarize ourselves with things that are either good, bad or just patterns of behavior. Human brains create a prejudice that affects our decision-making. These biases are based on common facts or your past experiences that may affect how you think of things now. Minimizing bias is not impossible, and in fact, with conscious thought and standard processes, you can go a long way towards making a positive difference that can be seen and felt by others around you.Unconscious bias, also known as implicit bias, refers to a person's attitude or beliefs about others that happen without the person being aware of it. Why did you select that person? If you've participated in a 360-degree review for a teammate, were your comments objective or based on feelings? Affinity bias can work in especially detrimental ways during recruitment and promotion. Think about the last time you chose someone to work with. Standardization also slows down the process so that your automatic and unconscious gut reaction can be replaced with methodical and deliberate action. Working off a structure that you can apply to everyone will help to lesser the influence of bias in your decision-making processes. Reducing our unconscious bias as we interact with others at work can be accomplished by creating standard processes that will help you to pause before you react in favor of or to the detriment of someone in a review process. Unconsciously, the person with whom you have a perceived affinity will automatically have an edge over the others, and whether they deserve it or not. So how does this equate to unconscious bias in the workplace? If the person you have to write an evaluation of is someone who graduated from your alma mater, you may rate them higher than the person you have little or no connection with. And so as a parent, a child who plays the same sport you did in high school, or who has your creative gene, is usually the one you relate to the most and are closest to. We favor those who have something in common with us. Affinity bias is the tendency to warm up to people like ourselves. And for that, you can place the blame squarely on affinity bias. But if you have a sibling or if you're a parent yourself, it isn't difficult to tell who the favorite is. And so as parents, we struggle to make sure everything is fair. And we're told that playing favorites is wrong.
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