2 Common Myths About Unconscious Bias

People often conflate it with prejudice, racism, discrimination, or sexism.

But bias, on its face, is not inherently good or bad. In the simplest of terms, our biases are our preferences.

Understanding two common myths around unconscious bias will help us better understand the role it plays at work.

At our core, we all identify as good. So if we think bias is inherently negative and only bad people have it, we close off exploring these topics further. We put up walls and say, “I'm not even going to go there because I'm a good person. I try to treat people fairly.” We get defensive.

If we recognize that we all have biases, we can reconcile the two opposing ideas that we can have biases and still be good people. They can coexist. That's what helps us make progress.