Determining Hidden Bias
I found some interesting ongoing research called Project Implicit. The site has several online tests which allow us to determine if we have a hidden bias in a number of areas - gender, age, race, to name a few.
According to the researchers:
It is well known that people don't always 'speak their minds', and it is suspected that people don't always 'know their minds'. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology.
This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.
These interesting tests can determine if we have a hidden bias of some sort. For example, I took the test regarding age. Fixed soundly in the midst of middle age (I'm 43 - I'm figuring that's about in the middle), I have, according to the test, a slight favoritism for older people, unlike a majority of the rest of the population which tends to favor younger individuals.
The research comes from a number of universities here in the United States. Certainly, the implications of understanding hidden bias has great significance in the workplace. If nothing else, it will make us reflect a bit.