What You Don’t Know About Bias Can Hurt You

Jerrilyn Malana said the term “implicit bias” became mainstream during the 2016 presidential election.

SAN DIEGO—Implicit or unconscious bias can be either a positive or a negative, but both forms can have harmful effects when it comes to company decision-making, said Jerrilyn Malana, Esq., chief deputy for employment and special advisor for the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, at the BMC Dialogue Series “Unconscious Bias in the Workplace” event. The conference was presented by the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego School of Business here Wednesday afternoon.

Malana said it’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for, explaining that unconscious bias is also referred to as “implicit bias”—a term that became mainstream during the 2016 presidential election. Implicit bias leads to shortcuts in thinking that one may or may not agree with, but that ultimately may result in unfair treatment of others. And this unfairness may actually be shortchanging the one with the bias as well as the one who is on the receiving end.