Taking the hidden bias assessment strengthened my conviction that indeed, individuals have hidden biases. People, when asked racists and gender related questions tend to choose answers they believe are the best and most acceptable to others. This may be because they want to make the impression that they do not have biases or prejudice against the race of other person or that they want to show that they are pro gender equality. However, the truth maybe is that deep inside they do not really know themselves that much to such point that they don’t realize that actually they have hidden biases.
Personally, I live in a home where there I can say that the members of my family are not racists. They see whites and blacks as equals and actually take the side of the black Americans when watching movies showing the cruelty of the whites to the blacks during the slavery period. Their opinion is that these blacks are also people with feelings that deserve to be treated equally with the whites. When it comes to the gender issues, TV shows showing expose’s on different cultures who sells their daughters for marriage in exchange of money are a “no no” for my family. Having been in a close knit family, I was thinking all the way that these are also my beliefs because I have been influenced by them. However, after taking the exam, I started to think otherwise.
My test results suggested that I have a strong automatic preference for European American compared to African American people. I was really surprised when the result came out because I was thing all along that I am not biased or I tend to favor the African American people. Unknowingly, the result says otherwise. For me, this is one proof of the existence of hidden biases among individuals. It is important to know our hidden biases so we can “expect” our behavior when we encounter situations requiring our judgment to avoid prejudice and discrimination. I believe that our hidden biases can be corrected in time if we are already conscious of them.
In terms of association between female and males regarding career and family, my data shows little or no association. I agree with the results because I personally do not think of any association of gender of a person to career in family. For me, the success of a person’s career depends on how the person manages himself regardless of his gender. Likewise, the way a person handles a family does not have any relevance to his gender. I still believe that part of it is influenced by his upbringing, but, it is still the individual’s own disposition.
Works Cited
Teaching Tolerance (2014). Test Yourself for Hidden Biases. Web. 9 Apr 2014. <http://www.tolerance.org/hiddenbias>
