Understanding implicit bias and how to counteract it

Implicit bias is an unconscious, unintentional bias that shapes your judgments, decisions, and behavior toward others based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, age, gender, or religion. Unlike explicit bias, it operates below conscious awareness—you can hold implicit biases that contradict the values you genuinely believe in.

In the workplace, implicit bias can quietly influence hiring decisions, promotions, performance ratings, and culture. It also shows up in education, healthcare, and the criminal justice system, where the stakes for the people affected are just as high.

This guide covers what implicit bias is, how to recognize and measure it, and what actually works to counteract it.

What is implicit bias?

Bias refers to attitudes, behaviors, and actions that favor one person or group over another. Implicit bias is the unconscious version: it affects how you judge and treat others based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, and other characteristics—without your awareness or intent.

The actions you take because of this bias aren’t deliberate. But unconscious bias can still affect hiring decisions, promotions, and even access to medical treatment, so it’s worth understanding and having the tools to change it.

What is the most common type of implicit bias?

It’s possible to hold implicit biases about many different groups. Here are some common types:

• Racial bias—discriminating against someone or making assumptions about them due to their race or cultural background.
• Name bias—valuing certain names over others. For instance, Anglo-sounding names are often favored over those from other cultures.
• Age bias—making assumptions about someone’s character or abilities based on their age. This is a major workplace problem when younger candidates are favored over older candidates with more experience.
• Gender bias—prejudice or discrimination based on someone’s gender. The assumption that men make better business leaders is an example.
• Confirmation bias—consuming and believing information that conforms with your existing beliefs.
• Conformity bias—going along with the group even when you don’t agree. It’s also known as “groupthink.”

Is implicit bias everywhere?

Yes—implicit bias shows up in every setting where people make judgments about other people. Its effects matter most in settings where decisions can put someone at a disadvantage or adversely impact their life: work, school, healthcare, and the justice system.

Implicit vs. explicit bias

Implicit bias stems from unconscious thoughts and associations. Explicit bias is intentional—when you exhibit it, you’re fully aware of your thought process, and the consequences are deliberate.

You might assume implicit biases are harder to change because they’re less controllable. However, studies have shown that people can successfully change implicit attitudes over time.

What causes implicit bias?

From childhood onward, you absorb attitudes from family, friends, schoolmates, and neighbors, and your experiences shape who you are. Implicit bias can result from repeated exposure to negative ideas about a particular group of people.

Even if you consciously disagree with those negative ideas and hold a positive explicit attitude toward that group, your brain stores the negative information unconsciously as patterns and associations. These associations can influence thoughts, judgments, or actions without you realizing it.

What are the effects of implicit bias?

The effects of implicit bias, although unintentional, can change the course of someone’s life. Schools, workplaces, healthcare facilities, and the criminal justice system can all harm the people they’re meant to serve when decisions are shaped by implicit bias.

Implicit bias in school

A teacher’s expectations and perceptions of students can lead to different treatment and lower academic outcomes for specific groups. If a teacher unconsciously expects less of a student because of implicit stereotypes, they may devote more time and resources to others.

A study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that in schools with stronger pro-White/anti-Black bias among teachers, gaps in test scores between Black and White students were wider, and suspension rates for Black students were higher.

The study also indicated that teachers of color held less pro-White/anti-Black bias, with Black teachers exhibiting the lowest levels.

Researchers concluded that diversity in teaching staff and leadership—alongside supporting White teachers to recognize and monitor their implicit biases—may be key to reducing academic inequality.

Implicit bias in the workplace

Implicit bias can influence hiring decisions, promotion opportunities, and workplace culture, which in turn affects employee retention, engagement, and productivity. Managers may unconsciously skew hiring decisions and performance ratings, limiting job and promotion opportunities for some people.

Implicit bias also hinders workplace diversity and inclusion efforts, which exist to ensure people from all groups feel comfortable contributing ideas and doing their best work.

Managers can counteract it by focusing performance assessments solely on the value of the individual’s contribution or skill set. Hiring managers should define which skills and experiences are missing from the team, then select the person who best fits those criteria.

Implicit bias in healthcare settings

Some groups face implicit bias in healthcare settings, which can mean less access to healthcare—including disease screening and treatment.

Healthcare professionals may not intend to make discriminatory decisions, but implicit bias can still seriously affect people from certain groups. Examples include:

• Emergency intervention efforts applied more often to one group than another.
• Pain medication recommended to certain groups less often.
• Organ transplant decisions skewed by bias.
• Misdiagnosis—doctors may diagnose based on who is presenting the symptoms rather than the symptoms themselves.

These outcomes can be serious, even fatal. Implicit bias in healthcare also shapes patient behavior: patients from minority ethnic backgrounds who experience bias may skip screening programs, quit treatment, or avoid seeking medical advice altogether.

Monitoring systems that evaluate healthcare processes and outcomes by race and other characteristics (such as gender or age) can reveal disparities and cases of implicit bias. Where monitoring finds systemic inequality, the care unit or provider should get that feedback so they can build remediation and accountability programs.

Implicit bias in law enforcement and legal settings

The criminal justice system isn’t immune to implicit bias. Some participants in the system strongly associate criminality and violence with specific groups of people.

The American Bar Association (ABA) examined these issues in a webinar, Equal Justice: Confronting Bias With the Criminal Justice System. Sarah Redfield—a law professor, implicit bias expert, and diversity and inclusion trainer—acknowledged that biases persist in the criminal justice system, and the panelists agreed that lawmakers, attorneys, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, and jurors all exhibit implicit bias.

Redfield believes these biases can be overcome, suggesting strategies such as staying aware, staying accountable, and diversifying contact networks.

Measuring implicit bias

Several online tests measure implicit bias. The best-known is the Implicit Association Test (IAT), available since 1998. It helps people discover biases they may not know they hold.

The test reveals automatic, unconscious thought patterns and measures the strength of associations. Participants categorize words or images on screen by pressing specific keys on the keyboard.

Taking the Implicit Association Test

Anyone can take the IAT on the Project Implicit website. After some preliminary information and disclaimers, you’ll find a list of IAT tests covering:

• Race
• Sexuality
• Gender
• Religion
• Disability
• Weight
• Arab-Muslim, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic
• Transgender
• Age

Each test takes about 10 minutes. At the end, you’ll receive your results and information to help you understand them.

Be curious about your results

The results don’t mean you’re prejudiced or hold negative attitudes toward specific people. They simply reveal whether you hold unconscious stereotypes or implicit preferences for one group over another. The results can be eye-opening—use them to reflect, build new associations, and challenge existing ones when you interact with specific groups.

It can also help to be deliberate about the information you consume. Watching shows or films about people from less familiar or minority groups may help you counter negative associations. After some time, retake the test to see if anything’s changed.

Remember, it’s not about you

The point of the test isn’t to make you feel bad—it’s to make you aware. The test doesn’t predict how one individual will behave.

A “strong” implicit bias score toward a specific group doesn’t mean you’re a habitual discriminator. At a population level, though, the test helps predict how people are likely to respond in hiring and promotion, medical treatment, and law enforcement decisions involving certain groups.

Can you eliminate implicit bias?

With sustained time and attention, you can redirect your attitudes toward more equitable and positive actions, behaviors, judgments, and decisions. It requires honesty and accountability.

You change these patterns by recognizing and understanding your implicit biases, then committing time and effort to addressing them.

Ongoing awareness and action is necessary to combat implicit bias

You can’t address implicit bias once and expect it to disappear. It’s an ongoing process that requires constant awareness and effort.

Educating yourself on your unconscious preferences—and how they affect members of specific groups—lets you recognize implicit biases when they surface and keep them out of your decision-making.

Beware of the training backlash

Many experts agree that most conventional diversity training programs and policies have little effect on implicit bias. Programs and policies that may have little or even worsening effects include:

• Threatening lawsuits
• Negative incentives like disciplinary actions
• Mandatory training
• Hiring tests and performance ratings
• Grievance procedures

Control tactics—mandatory diversity training, required hiring tests, enforced performance ratings—tend to breed animosity, anger, and resistance instead of encouraging change. Grievance procedures can even backfire on the people who raise complaints about implicit bias.

Voluntary training, program participation, and increasing contact with specific groups get the best results. When you choose to educate yourself, you’re showing you’re willing to make positive changes within yourself.