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B IAS, P REJUDICE, & D ISCRIMINATION Is Objectivity a Futile Objective?

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P LEASE A SK F OR C LARIFICATION !

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C ULTURAL P ERCEPTIONS Prompts Country of family origin and heritage Languages spoken Interests and hobbies Favourite foods Types of movies and TV programs preferred, if any Pets, if any, or favourite animal

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C ULTURAL P ERCEPTIONS Debrief: a) How did it feel to have the responsibility for making the assumptions? c) What insights does this give us about the operating, unnamed biases? d) What are the dilemmas of identifying/naming these distinctions? Of leaving them silent?

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H ELPFUL OR H ARMFUL ? When is it harmful and when is it helpful to treat an individual as a member of a particular social group?

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D EVELOPING A C OMMON L ANGUAGE Bias Perspective Stereotype Set Image Prejudice Pre-Judge Discrimination Differential Treatment Systemic Discrimination Policies and Practices BELIEFS / ATTITUDES BEHAVIOURS / ACTIONS

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O UR I MPLICIT AND U NCONSCIOUS B IAS

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Society has significant bias against non-dominant groups: We absorb bias -- consciously and unconsciously People are unaware of their implicit bias Our implicit bias informs/shapes/predicts our behaviour Our implicit bias is less visible to ourselves Unlearning unconscious bias is a constant project

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A F EW K EY C HARACTERISTICS OF I MPLICIT B IASES Implicit biases are pervasive. Implicit and explicit biases are related but distinct mental constructs. They do not necessarily align with our declared beliefs Tendency to favor our own in-group Implicit biases are malleable.

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I MPLICIT A SSOCIATION T EST (IAT) The IAT measures implicit bias https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html Note: It is NOT perfectly accurate!

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I MPLICATIONS FOR L EARNING & L IVING Can we get rid of implicit associations? The answer is NO, and we wouldnt always want to (flight mechanism!) The problem arises when we form associations that contradict our intentions, beliefs, and values female with weak; Muslim with terrorist; or black with criminality; The skew and acceptance toward in-groups (who have assets) and exaggerated difference and disdain towards out-groups (who have deficits)

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L ANGUAGE & P ERCEPTION

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W HAT C OLOUR ( S ) D O Y OU S EE ?

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Russian English Vietnamese Goluboi Siniy Salatoviy Zelioniy BlueBlue Green Green XanhXanh Xanh Xanh

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English Piraha OneTwo Ten Twenty OneMany Many Many

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Linguistic Determinism)

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Elle est contente. Il est content. D OES L ANGUAGE S HAPE H OW W E P ERCEIVE P EOPLE ?

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occhiolism n. the awareness of the smallness of your perspective, by which you couldnt possibly draw any meaningful conclusions at all, about the world or the past or the complexities of culture, because although your life is an epic and unrepeatable anecdote, it still only has a sample size of one, and may end up being the control for a much wilder experiment happening in the next room. adronitis n. frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone spending the first few weeks chatting in their psychological entryway, with each subsequent conversation like entering a different anteroom, each a little closer to the center of the house wishing instead that you could start there and work your way out, exchanging your deepest secrets first, before easing into casualness, until youve built up enough mystery over the years to ask them where theyre from, and what they do for a living. T HE D ICTIONARY OF O BSCURE S ORROWS