Thinking at the Speed of Bias

September 15, 2024
Field-tested advice on implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in one's community and workplace. In Taylor's previous book, Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World (2017), she created the categories "Frames" and "Filters" to help readers see the mostly conscious and almost entirely unconscious perceptions that shape our interactions with others as well as the communities we create, from classrooms to cities to corporations. Here, she returns to and expands upon these concepts. Frames she explains, are informed by objective facts. How one chooses to respond to an objective fact, however, will be affected by one's Filters. These are patterns of belief that may or may not be objectively true and they are so ingrained that we don't think about them or question them. And, as Taylor explains, we are more likely to attribute negative qualities to a whole category of people if we're reacting to someone who we regard as not like us--especially if their identity seems unfamiliar and even threatening. This is unconscious bias, and it's not difficult to see how this sort of stereotyping or othering perpetuates inequity at individual and systemic levels. What is difficult, though, is recognizing and interrogating our own unconscious biases in order to unlearn them. In this book, Taylor continues the work of helping readers do exactly this by applying Frames-and-Filters analysis to such phenomena as polarization and microaggressions. The author supports her work with useful insights from psychology and social science research. For example, her model for the stages of cultural competence is a synthesis of the work of three different researchers who study cross-cultural communication. Despite the bullet-pointed summaries and useful infographics, this text is sometimes dense and maybe not best suited for a training handbook. However, the discussion questions at the end make it a good choice for a book study group. A data-driven, actionable guide for executives, community leaders, and individuals invested in fostering a culture of belonging.

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