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Elizabeth Waller- Hidden Bias, Stereotypes


-What are some examples of positive stereotypes? Negative stereotypes limit and generalize the people to which they are assigned. Might positive stereotypes have the same limiting capabilities for people who fall outside of the positive stereotypes? For example, if someone doesn’t meet the general positive expectation for their type (e.g., “all women are nurturing”) they might be seen as a failure or have the validity of their identity questioned by someone who can’t see beyond the stereotype. A stereotype is a predetermined film of judgement that is applied to someone based on superficial qualities. How can we see each other honestly if we’re already applying judgement, even if it’s a positive judgement?

-It is important for us to understand our own biases so that we can understand what biases we unconsciously pass on to others (children, etc.).

-In the hidden bias tests, a lot of the questions were oversimplified and didn’t account for the nuance of the issues. For example, one question in the race bias test said that Irish, Italian, and Jewish people all had bias against them and worked their way out of it. The question was of how much we agree with the statement that black people should do they same. The way this question is posed doesn’t account for the fact that these groups of people have all faced very different types and levels of bias. The legal and societal structures that are in place affect these groups and their ability to “work their way out” of discrimination very differently. Anyone who claims that oppressed groups “just need to work harder” doesn’t understand how our systems are purposefully set up to hold some groups in powerlessness. Furthermore, the assumption that oppressed people need to “work their way out” of oppression puts the focus and responsibility in the wrong place. It should be the oppressor’s job to stop oppressing, not the oppressed person’s job to work through or around that.

-Many of the sex/career bias test questions were similarly limited. One asked, “During your youth, who was your primary caregiver?” The response options were binary (mother/father), with no option for both. My parents traded off staying home from work to take care of me when I was little. My dad was a stay-at-home dad for a while. My mom was a stay-at-home mom for a while. My parents shared my caregiving equally and it would be inaccurate to choose one as a “primary caregiver”. There was an option for “N/A (I did not have a primary caregiver)”, but in a test that specifically focuses on sex, I feel it’s important to note that both my mother and father were involved in my caretaking.

-With the timed word association tests, I wonder how the order of the key assignments affected my response time and my results. After the first set of associations, I got used to the key assignments. I had to relearn the key assignments and change my muscle memory for the following sets. Would my results have been different if the keys were assigned in a different order?

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