“Implicit bias“ exists when we unconsciously hold attitudes or judgments about other people or social groups. It is also called “unconscious bias.“ Having implicit bias means we harbor stereotypes about other people without realizing that we’re doing so. It’s a prejudice deep-seated within the human brain, below the conscious level.
Implicit bias is often negative. Research has shown negative unconscious bias against racial groups, genders, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized people. Although we may be prejudiced against our own group, more often we unconsciously hold positive stereotypes about people in our in-group, and negative stereotypes about people in out-groups.
Studies show that implicit bias often runs counter to our conscious, expressed beliefs. For example, not many physicians consciously hold racially discriminatory views. But research shows that doctors tend to recommend less pain medication for black patients than they do for white patients with the identical injury.[1] Likewise, not many people advocate for discrimination in hiring. But studies show that white applicants receive significantly more responses from potential employers than black applicants do, with the same resume.[2] As Daniel Kelly and colleagues note, people can be explicitly unbiased, yet implicitly biased.[3]
In the criminal legal system, implicit bias creates an unacceptable risk of wrongful conviction for people of color. Research has found implicit racial bias affecting prosecutors, judges, potential jurors, defense counsel, witnesses, parole boards, probation officers, pathologists, and police officers. While conscious racial bias does play a role in wrongful convictions, the impact of implicit racial bias in wrongful convictions cannot be overstated.
Of course, no system is perfect. For example, in the U.S., for every 300,000 car trips, two people are injured. And for every 300,000 surgeries, twenty-five people experience major medical mistakes or die. But for every 300,000 convictions in the U.S., an estimated 9,000 people are wrongfully convicted. Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences estimates that 4% of death row inmates are wrongfully convicted, meaning that nearly 100 innocent people are sitting on death row right now.[4] And, with nearly two million people incarcerated, there are likely 200,000 innocent people in U.S. jails and prisons today.[5]
Even though Black people are less than 14% of the American population, they represent more than 50% of the 3,500 plus innocent prisoners exonerated since 1989. According to data, Black Americans are 7 and a half times more likely than white Americans to be wrongfully convicted of murder, 8 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of rape, and 19 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of serious drug crimes.[6] On average, innocent black inmates spend 3 years longer in prison before being exonerated of murder than innocent white inmates do.[7]
Because implicit bias – racial or otherwise – operates at a mostly unconscious level, it is difficult to overcome. But fortunately, some research shows that stereotypes can be unlearned. And that safeguards can be put in place to minimize the impact of implicit bias.
For example, women used to make up only a very small percentage of musicians in symphony orchestras. Then orchestras began holding auditions where the applicants played behind a curtain – their genders were unknown to the judges. When this happened, the percentage of women chosen to play in symphony orchestras doubled.[8]
So, acknowledging the role of implicit bias is critical to addressing it. And learning the facts about implicit bias may help all of us guard against its dangerous impact.
[1] Vickie L. Shavers et al., “Race, Ethnicity, and Pain Among the U.S. Adult Population,” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 177-220 (Feb. 2010).
[2] Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination,” American Economic Review, Vol. 94, No. 4, pp. 991-1013 (2004).
[3] Daniel Kelly et al., “Race and Racial Cognition,” in The Moral Psychology Handbook p. 456 (John M. Doris, ed. 2010)
[4] https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1306417111
[5] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html
[6] National Registry of Exonerations, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States (2022). https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Race%20Report%20Preview.pdf
[7] National Registry of Exonerations, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States (2022). https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Race%20Report%20Preview.pdf
[8] Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of “Blind” Auditions on Female Musicians. Claudia Goldin & Cecilia Rouse, Jan. 1997