Introduction

Objectivity, fairness, impartiality – humans strive to achieve all these qualities, although they often do not realize that involuntary, unconscious associations significantly affect the perception of the environment. Perhaps all stereotypes about others have been instilled from an early age, when the child unintentionally assumes as true what it hears or notices in the behaviour of closest relatives. This becomes manifest in the future in the fact that we retain and reinforce biases – if we are not fully aware of it. We begin to eliminate (at least in our thoughts) people with certain characteristics, appearance, beliefs, gender, religion, etc. Therefore, in modern societies it is extremely important to counteract, detect and eliminate these unconscious biases. This task may seem difficult, because we all know that in today’s world everyone is trying to fit into the “canons” of normality. Any differences arising, amongst others, from the origin of a given person may completely exclude him/her from a given group precisely because of this ‘undesirable’ difference. This is extremely crucial for example in the case of migrants and people with a migration background. Therefore, it is necessary to start with ourselves and our closest environment, trying to understand the cause of harmful behaviour. When we understand that we must implement actions that will allow people excluded by society to participate in cultural life without obstacles. It is also important for such people to feel that they are respected and tolerated by the general public.

This module aims to explain the meaning of “unconscious bias”. The concept of the module is also to help the learner understand how unconscious biases arise and how to recognize them in their own behaviour. This publication highlights the causes of exclusionary behaviour and the actions that everyone should take to minimize the risk of it occurring in themselves. Understanding the causes is crucial, because the implementation of preventive measures depends strongly on it.

Learning outcome(s): At the end of the module you will be able to:

• learn the meaning of the term “unconscious bias”
• understand how unconscious biases are created
• learn how to recognize your own unconscious biases and how to make them less likely to appear in your life

Source: https://pixabay.com/pl/photos/zesp%c3%b3%c5%82-praca-budynek-gabinet-4200837/