The End of Bias by Jessica Nordell
The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias, by Jessica Nordell, was published in the U.S. in 2021 by Metropolitan Books (a division of Henry Holt and Company) and by Granta in the U.K. The author attended MIT and received a B.A. in physics from Harvard University. She later earned a certificate in visual art from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Poetry Fellow. She is a science and culture journalist whose work has appeared in the Atlantic, New York Times, and New Republic, among other publications. The End of Bias is her first book.
An excellent example of persuasive non-fiction, The End of Bias clearly defines the problem of unintentional bias and provides many examples to facilitate reader understanding. It explores its presence in and effects on our society, providing a powerful case for why it is a problem. Most important, it provides information on solutions to the problem, citing what works and why. The mainstay of all good nonfiction, documentation, is evident throughout this well-researched book.
In an online how to be… interview, the author explains that as we grow up, we learn what categories of people exist and are prominent in our culture. At the same time, we are constantly learning associations and stereotypes that relate to those categories. What happens with unconscious, unintentional, embedded, or unexamined bias is that we encounter a person who connects to one of these categories and then all of these associations that we have stored in our memory begin to influence the way that we react. These reactions can happen so quickly and so automatically that we are not necessarily aware that they are happening. They may be influencing us in ways that we are not intending. In fact, these reactions can actually be in conflict with our professed values.
The author cites Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Implicit Association Test as influences on our recent awareness of unconscious bias and how it affects our behavior. This has led to what she refers to as “a constellation of approaches that have been found to have a positive impact on creating awareness and motivation for change.” These approaches provide strategies for transformation that have reduced or eliminated disparate gender and racial stereotyping and treatment. They include, but are not limited to:
- teaching the history of cultural concepts that affect and/or rationalize biased behavior (e.g., patriarchy, slavery, misogyny),
- treating bias as a habit one must work to overcome,
- providing workshops that promote awareness and motivation, and provide replacement strategies,
- repetition of replacement strategies until they become habitual. These include nonjudgmental awareness, compassionate responses, and cooperatively working as equals,
- using behavioral design hypotheses to create standardized criteria checklists (in business, health care, and education),
- dismantling homogeneity in the workplace (restructuring representation and power in corporations, schools, and other institutions), and
- using mentors and role models in the workplace as “evidence that a particular kind of life is possible.” [Peko Hosoi quote from p. 217]
I chose a quote to include in this review as a fitting example of why I love this book. Taken from Chapter 9: The Architecture of Inclusion, the quote and note provided focus on a solution that is in place and working. To introduce the solution, the author first presents examples of attempts at building diversity that have failed, leaving colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds feeling isolated, invisible, stereotyped, and disrespected. Jessica Nordell writes:
To create less biased environments, it’s not enough to simply increase the diversity of the group—-to add women or any underrepresented group and stir. If the people who increase a group’s diversity feel devalued and unwelcome, diversity is a battle half-won. When organizations fail people from marginalized groups by showing them in ways subtle and overt that they are not valued, they recruit talent only to hemorrhage it. [p. 229]
She continues:
When management professors Robin Ely and David Thomas set out to understand why some organizations with diversity initiatives were more successful than others, they noticed something striking. Organizations that were similar in terms of their level of diversity were actually quite different in terms of actual experiences of employees. In some of these organizations, people of different racial and cultural identities felt respected and valued; at others they felt devalued and mistrusted. [p. 236]
As the researchers studied companies over twenty years, they found a difference in the organizations’ purpose for seeking diversity in the first place. Some organizations “saw diversity as the right thing to do but did not expect diversity to change the organization in any meaningful way. Employees of color contributed to the company, one White manager said, by helping us ‘live up to our ideals of equality and justice.’” Other organizations viewed diversity as a way to reach new customers and open markets. “Diversity was a strategy to gain legitimacy with a specific set of clients.” [p. 236]
The author then presents a solution.
There was, however, a third approach to diversity, one that resulted in positive experiences for all employees. In this perspective, diversity was necessary because different skills and viewpoints were seen as necessary, not just to attract specific customers but for the institution itself to evolve. At a law firm Ely and Thomas studied, for instance, leaders believed that people from different backgrounds and with different life experiences provided essential sources of insight that could influence the firm in far-reaching ways, from strategy to operations. When conflicts arose, they were addressed directly because resolving them was considered necessary for the good of the organization.
Since difference was seen as a source of wealth, the firm also worked to fully integrate everyone into the organization. Staff were encouraged to learn from one another’s experiences; they were expected to be curious about new perspectives and open to revising their own beliefs and behaviors. The firm itself had to be open to changing the way things had always been done. As a result, people from marginalized groups felt heard, not erased. Differences weren’t avoided or downplayed because doing so would waste an opportunity for new information and insight. Employees felt respected and valued for their unique contributions because, in fact, they were. [p. 237] [Source of solution may be found in Robin Ely and David Thomas (2001), “Cultural diversity at work: The effects of diversity perspectives on work group processes and outcomes,” Administrations Science Quarterly, 46(2), 229-273.]
Thank you to Goodreads, Maia Sacca-Schaeffer, and Henry Holt & Co. for the advance copy of The End of Bias and apologies for taking so long to read and review this outstanding book.
