However, before we start to launch into a total defence mode, it is important
that we acknowledge, that everyone relies on stereotypes and that is ‘normal’
behaviour. Unconscious biases are the implicit hypotheses about the roles of
men and women and the behaviour of minorities. We all need to have
hypotheses about how people will behave in various circumstances in order to
be able to function in a social world. However, unconscious bias can lead to
inappropriate judgements, for example, studies in which the ratings given to a
CV associated with a male name our rated more highly than the same CV
associated with a female name (Steinpreis et al. 1999).
The effects of unconscious bias may be very serious: a recent study by Green
et al. (2007) in the United States showed that unconscious bias affected the
treatment given to African American men suffering from chest pain.
Often, however, the effect of an individual misjudgement is not, in itself,
particularly significant. Nevertheless, the effect of accumulated mis-
judgements can have lead to significantly different outcomes.
Research carried out by social psychologists demonstrates conclusively that
stereotypes are cognitive schemata that invariably influence how we process
information about others (Bodenhausen, Macrae, and Garst 1998). The
characteristics that we associate with specific gender and racial groups labels
have been learned and embedded into to our unconscious mind and
behaviour. Evidence (Devine 1989, Bodenhausen and MacCrae 1996)
suggests that people are often unaware of how their own stereotypes shape
their own perceptions and behaviour. Similarly, individuals whose personal
beliefs are relatively free of prejudice or bias are susceptible to stereotypes in
the same ways as people who hold a personal animosity towards a specific
group.