Values: Self, Society and the Professions.
My lecture today was about how we view ourselves and about our conscious and unconscious self. During the lecture, I learned about the 3 levels of bias:
- Conscious and open bias
- Conscious and hidden bias
- Unconscious bias
When listening at first, I believed that I couldn’t have an unconscious bias. I believed that the only truth in me was the truth I thought in my head and what I thought I thought I knew. But after thinking about it further, I decided that I probably do have some sort of unconscious bias (obviously). Most people have some sort of degree of unconscious bias, and it is deeply ingrained into our thinking and emotions.
So, I went online into https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ and decided to take a few tests. The first test was about ‘age’, the second ‘gender’ and the third ‘weight’. These were the 3 that stood out to me straight away (out of many other options such as race, countries etc) and probably because I believe that I have really strong beliefs in these categories. If anyone asked me, I would say that I am envious of thinner people, that women and men SHOULD be equal and that age does not make any difference. My tests did not show this though, I have a preference for young over old, a strong association with men and science and women with the liberal arts and a strong automatic preference for thin people compared to fat people.
Today, my thinking is about how I view others and wondering if what I think is a good or bad thing- and how important it is to me as a person, and my effect on society.
