In recent years, much research has conceptualized bias as an automatic response, cultivated through exposure to bias in society. From this perspective, combating bias requires reducing a proclivity for bias within individuals as in many “implicit-bias training” efforts. I will introduce an alternative approach that begins with both other- and self-compassion. This compassion comes in the form of the presumption that people are inherently complex, that is, including multiple, often contradictory patterns of selves and goals.
When we conceptualize the person this way, we can ask when biased selves are likely to emerge and whether we can sideline this bias—alter situations in potent ways that elevate alternative selves and goals that people will endorse and for which bias would be non-functional. Using both classic and contemporary examples, I will show how sidelining bias has led to meaningful improvements in real world outcomes, including higher achievement and reduced school suspensions, recidivism to jail, and stereotyping in mass advertisements across three Western countries.
For more on Dr. Okonofua’s work, please visit his website.
This is our 9th Annual Lecture on Compassion, made possible by a generous endowment from Mark Greenberg, former Center Director and holder of the Edna Peterson Bennett Endowed Chair in Prevention Research, and his wife, Christa Turksma, a child-clinical psychologist and teacher of mindfulness skills.
