Managing Bias

Bias is the tendency of a person to favor or disfavor people, things or ideas.

Bias can be implicit (unconscious) or explicit (conscious). Everyone has biases. They are the result of the brain’s propensity to organize and categorize information to make our hundreds of daily decisions quicker and easier.

We form these intellectual shortcuts from information in our social and physical environments, from our lived experiences and around gaps in knowledge about things and people unfamiliar to us. Bias thinking is a necessary part of the human condition, but bias thinking doesn’t take in all novel information, it often ignores context, and it can lead to wrong conclusions.

When bias concerns the identity of individuals and groups it can cause individual and systemic harms that impact equity, inclusion and belonging.

Recognizing, examining and addressing biases, both explicit and implicit, is grounded in the core values of Sacred Heart University. SHU’s commitment to excellence and the pursuit of truth and knowledge requires cultivating clarity in thinking and analysis that is incomplete without understanding the role bias plays in thought, research and analysis. Further, SHU’s explicit recognition of the dignity and worth of every human being compels the SHU community to recognize and meaningfully address the harms caused by identity bias.

While this endeavor requires all of us, SHU’s Bias Education and Support Team (BEST) is available to help.  Please find more information about BEST above.