Stanford University psychology professor will never forget the time she boarded a plane with her 5-year-old son. His eyes, wide with excitement, surveyed the cabin for a few minutes before he pointed out a man that he said looked like 鈥渄addy.鈥�
Other than being the only black man on the plane, Eberhardt was confused by the association, but decided to give her child the benefit of the doubt and find some characteristic that resembled her husband. She looked for similarities in height and weight, and in skin tone and facial features. When she realized the man her son picked out had long dreadlocks 鈥� nothing like her husband鈥檚 bald head 鈥� she decided it was time for a chat.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥極K. So now I鈥檓 going to have to have this conversation with my son about how not all black people look alike,鈥欌�� said Eberhardt, a social science researcher whose work focuses on racial bias.
But before she could, her 5-year-old interrupted with something she never expected.
鈥淗e looked up at me and said, 鈥業 hope he doesn鈥檛 rob the plane,鈥欌�� Eberhardt recalled.
She was stunned, and when she asked her son what made him say that, he didn鈥檛 have an answer.
鈥淪o we鈥檙e living with such severe racial stratification that even a 5-year-old can tell us what鈥檚 supposed to happen next,鈥� said Eberhardt, who added that moment made her realize she couldn鈥檛 protect her son from the stereotypes and prejudices that existed in the outside world.
鈥淎nd I felt bad, too, because I wondered about the day that would come where he would realize that he could be a target of his own associations 鈥� this association of blackness with crime and criminality and threat and aggression, and that made me sad, as well.鈥�
Nearly everyone is guilty of harboring unconscious bias 鈥� what Eberhardt defines as the thoughts and feelings that we have about social groups that can influence our decision-making and our actions even when we鈥檙e not aware of it. And if left unchecked, this bias can lead to 鈥渞eally negative consequences鈥� that 鈥渄eepen鈥� the inequalities in our world.
In her new book, 鈥�,鈥� Eberhardt presents the science behind racial bias, as well as strategies to help individuals and institutions manage it.
How bias works
One reason you can鈥檛 completely rid yourself of bias is because, to some extent, it鈥檚 a normal function of the brain. Eberhardt said our brains are built to categorize; it鈥檚 how they make sense of all the stimuli that鈥檚 thrown at them every second of every day.
鈥淲e categorize everything, not just people, but we categorize furniture and cars and birds 鈥� you name it,鈥� Eberhardt said.
鈥淏ut when it comes to people and they鈥檙e sorted into categories, there are beliefs and feelings that get attached to those categories. And the beliefs, we call stereotypes and the feelings, we call prejudice.鈥�
And this type of categorization can become a precursor for bias, and bias can affect behavior.
When bias happens
Eberhardt said racial bias is much more likely to be triggered when decisions need to be made quickly and one is more 鈥渓ikely to fall back on automatic, fall back on intuition.鈥�
鈥淎nother example is when we鈥檙e feeling depleted or stressed or threatened, those kinds of feelings can trigger bias and lead us to act on it,鈥� Eberhardt said.
Allowing time to slow down, think things through and apply objective standards can help to avoid a bias outcome.
Eberhardt recently worked with the online community platform to address an uptick in racial profiling on its site. It turns out the addition of prompts that slowed down users and asked them to describe characteristics of suspicious behavior, and not just skin color, for example, led to a in racial profiling.
鈥淭here are lots of these conditions under which bias can emerge, and so we鈥檙e trying, as social scientists, to figure out what those conditions are and how to help people,鈥� Eberhardt said.
Talking to kids about racial bias
Raising 鈥渃olorblind鈥� kids may seem like the best approach when it comes to parenting, but Eberhardt said ignoring racial differences can backfire, and that鈥檚 because it overlooks inequalities in the world.
鈥淎nd so we end up magnifying those inequalities rather than combating them,鈥� Eberhardt said.
It鈥檚 never too young to start talking to your kids about race. Eberhardt was asked by her children鈥檚 elementary school principal to speak to students and parents about her career in racial bias, particularly her role in working with law enforcement and the criminal justice system on the issue.
At first, she dreaded the invitation. Then, when driving her kids to school one day, one son asked her, 鈥淢ommy, why is Baltimore on fire?鈥�
He was referring to the news on the radio reporting the protests of Freddie Gray鈥檚 death. That鈥檚 when she knew she had to talk to her children and their peers.
鈥淛ust because we鈥檙e not talking to our children about race and all these issues, doesn鈥檛 mean that they鈥檙e not hearing it. They鈥檙e exposed to it, they鈥檙e absorbing it. And when we don鈥檛 talk to them, we leave them alone to fend for themselves, to grapple with these issues on their own. And I feel like it鈥檚 our responsibility as parents to have these discussions so that we can help them through this,鈥� Eberhardt said.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 talk to them because we want to protect their innocence, but there鈥檚 a way in which we do them a disservice. We鈥檙e not protecting them, actually, we鈥檙e exposing them to all of this without any guidance.鈥�
