Unconscious Bias Training
Unconscious bias is a term used to describe the associations that we hold which, despite being outside our conscious awareness, can have a significant influence on our attitudes and behaviour. Regardless of how fair-minded we believe ourselves to be, most people have some degree of unconscious bias. The term implicit bias is used to mean that humans are not neutral in their judgement and behaviour but instead have experience-based associations and preferences (or aversions) without being consciously aware of them (LERU 2018).
This 3-minute video by the Royal Society explains it well.
Read the LERU 2018 Report here
For universities, the risk of our biases impacting on our key decision making processes, such as decisions affecting recruitment, assessment or provision of feedback to staff and students, can have an impact on the ability of those staff and students to achieve their full potential. Under a provision introduced to the Statutes by approval of Board in May 2020, in accordance with the university’s Athena SWAN commitments, Committee Chairs shall undertake unconscious bias training and ensure that that all members complete appropriate equality and diversity training.
Online training is available on the following links:
- Unconscious Bias from Creating a Gender Sensitive Institution (developed by the SAGE project)
- From LinkedIn Learning: Unconscious Bias by Stacey Gordon (requires sign-in with Trinity username and password)
Unconscious Bias Observer training for those on interview committees and panels is also offered through the EDI Office in conjunction with our LERU partners. Tangent, Trinity's Ideas Workspace also offer bias training through their Masterclass series.