Oct. 11, 2018

I'm biased and so are you

UCalgary’s diversity, equity and inclusion expert teaches skills to uncover unconscious bias
Valerie Pruegger equips faculty and staff to address inequity and discrimination through unconscious bias workshops on campus.

Valerie Pruegger equips faculty and staff to address inequity and discrimination on campus.

Riley Brandt, University of Calgary

When Dr. Valerie Pruegger, PhD, shaved her head to raise money for cancer research, people assumed she was terminally ill. And while the assumption itself may have been reasonable, the real problem began when she was treated differently, all because of a haircut. 

“When we meet someone new, we unconsciously size them up in a fraction of a millisecond. It’s part of an evolutionary mechanism built into our brains,” says Pruegger.

While some bias provides a survival advantage by allowing us to quickly enact our fight-or-flight response, over time we have applied biases to groups of people, causing us to make harmful, split-second decisions without even knowing it, Pruegger says.

Since the Office of Diversity, Equity and Protected Disclosure was established four years ago, Pruegger has worked diligently to dismantle hidden biases on campus by examining our policies, practices and procedures to ensure they are fair and equitable for everyone.

Part of Pruegger’s role includes educating the campus community through workshops, so whether you’re sitting on a selection committee, hiring a new employee, or interacting with a colleague, you’re equipped with the tools you need to recognize when harmful bias may be creeping in.

“The main goal of the Unconscious Bias workshops is to make people aware that these biases do exist so that we can focus on changing behaviours,” Pruegger says.

“People often relate having bias to being a bad person, but everyone has biases — we’re human beings. Bias is an adaptive function of the human brain, the problem is that it doesn’t always serve us well in our increasingly pluralistic societies.”

Through research examples on the neurological underpinnings of bias, as well as examples of unconscious bias in daily life, Pruegger aims to help attendees surface their unconscious biases, examine them and explore how they impact their behaviour and decision-making. 

“An example I often use is related to driving. Say you decide all women drivers are bad. When you see someone driving poorly and it happens to be a woman, it confirms your bias,” Pruegger says. “However, if you look over and see a man driving badly, you ignore that data because it doesn’t fit with your stereotype, and your bias remains intact.

“Instead, what we need to do is make a conscious effort to recognize these inconsistencies in order to create new neuropathways that disrupt our negative biases.”

From more equitable hiring practices, to a safer environment where people are free to express their varying identities, addressing unconscious bias has numerous benefits for the campus community.

“There’s a lot of room for self-reflection and growth as we confront our biases and try to change them when needed,” Pruegger says. “It is important to unlearn and surface the biases that are standing in our way of effective interpersonal relationships, but more importantly, we need to look at our systems to see where bias is being embedded and how it’s creating inequities and systemic discrimination.”

Request an Unconscious Bias workshop for your unit online or contact Andrea Berbic at 403.220.4439 or by email.