Unconscious Biases Once a colleague of mine asked me if the vendor we were discussing about, is from a particular southern Indian state, and considering the skin color of the person in context, without even giving it a second thought, I abruptly said, “No, she doesn’t look like� ...suddenly I realized that my response was based on the bias that I have, which tells me that all the people from South India have darker skin. I admit that I have my own set of conscious and unconscious biases... and on digging further about the subject I explored that everyone else also have their biases. Biases, what they are? Biases (an inclination or preference that influences judgment from being balanced and just), either conscious or unconscious are based on certain prior information that our mind possess. This information is mostly based on experiences of self and others. Eventually these pieces of information start settling in our mind as patterns and we refer to these patterns whenever we have to take a decision. And believe it or not we can be biased about something as trifling as selecting one color over the other. Are biases bad? Not always, as they help us to summarize a whole lot of information quickly and pick up what is best for us. Since ages, this ability has helped the mankind to identify who is a friend and who is a foe?
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