Implicit bias: What are we missing?

• Applicant: Dr. Lieke Asma
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy ; Practical Philosophy
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466165190

Psychological research has shown that we sometimes display implicit biases in our behaviour. Without intending to do so, we treat people belonging to a certain social group differently merely because they are part of that social group. The picture that is adopted in the literature is that these implicit biases can be explained in terms of an implicit attitude. Accordingly, researchers in the field have mostly been concerned with understanding and measuring the implicit attitude that supposedly causally explains implicitly biased behaviour. But psychological and philosophical research gives us reason to think that this is not the right approach. Empirical findings suggest that both the scores on implicit measures like the Implicit Association Test and implicitly biased behaviour are not the result of one underlying implicit attitude. Rather, all kinds of states and processes seem to contribute. Also, the implicitly biased behaviour does not ‘inherit’ its implicitness and bias from a psychological cause. The implicitly biased behaviour is recognized first, and only after that an implicit attitude is ascribed to the agent to explain it. It is the ascribed cause that inherits its nature from the implicitly biased behaviour. Of course, cognitive processes and mental states may explain the occurrence of implicit bias, but that cannot be what at the same time characterizes the behaviour as biased and implicit. We need to focus on the nature of what the agent actually does, and the sense in which that can be implicit and biased.This brings me to the three objectives of the project:1. I will use Anscombe's theory of action to explicate the different ways in which agents can be involved in what they do. Agents have a specific kind of knowledge, practical knowledge, of their actions, but they do not have practical knowledge of their behaviour. This suggests that action is explicit, while behaviour is implicit. My first aim is to develop a detailed account of the ways in which our behaviour may be implicitly sexist (or racist, or…).2. The notion of 'bias' has been used as an umbrella term for sexism, racism, etc., and has been defined as a tendency or as irrational. But in my view behaviour does not need to be a tendency or irrational to be sexist (or racist, or…). My second aim is to tease apart these concepts.3. My alternative approach implies that we do not have the same (kind of) knowledge of our actions and our (implicitly biased) behaviour. In fact, it suggests that others may be in a better position to know or find out about our implicitly biased behaviour. In the third part of the project I examine whether this implies that we are collectively responsible for implicit bias.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants