Bias and the virus. Catchy title, isn’t it?

The World Health Organisation has recognised that the previously named Wuhan coronavirus, had caused unintended consequences for many, including overt racism. This, my friends is bias.

The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noted that the new name  Covid19 does not refer to any of the people, places or animals associated with the Coronavirus. The goal was to avoid stigma… and ultimately bias.

Under international guidelines, the W.H.O. “had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease,” he said on Twitter.

Unfortunately, for many, the renaming may be too late. Increasingly, we are seeing impacts that are exposing the underbelly of fears and racism. Articles in the Australian newspaper, The Age, indicate that fear is driving customers away from popular restaurants in Melbourne’s famous China Town.  “Beloved Chinatown restaurant closes as customers stay away over coronavirus fears.”

The Business Insider online journal also reports that  ‘The Wuhan coronavirus is causing increased reports of racism and xenophobia against Asian people at college, work, and supermarkets.’

Similar articles are being published in the UK, US, and parts of Europe.

Racial biases are a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual’s understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.

When we fear the unknown or do not feel in control, we often unconsciously revert to a fight or flight reaction.

We take on the views of people around us. Many of our attitudes are shaped when we’re young or in times of uncertainty, often prompted by social media and misinformation. When our family members or friends express racist opinions, it’s common that we will take on those views ourselves. The problem is that, unless we do something about it, they can stay with us for a lifetime.

Humans are social animals.

We hang around with people “like us” It’s normal to want to spend time with people that have the same interests, background, culture and language. It creates a sense of belonging that is important. The downside is that it can also set up differences between other groups and, over time, this might lead us to think that our group is better than others.

We’re quick to judge. We often put labels on people. He dresses like this so he must be into this music. She goes to that school so she must be rich. We can also stereotype people from different racial backgrounds as “lazy”, “brainy”, “aggro”… you get the idea. The way to beat the stereotypes? Don’t judge a whole group. Get to know people from different racial backgrounds and find out how much you have in common.

We blame others for our problems. When we feel angry or frustrated, we often look for someone else to blame for our problems. As a community, we can do the same thing. People who look or talk differently to us are an easy target. You can hear it happening today in comments like, “those people take our jobs” or “they eat bats”. “They take all of our university places.”  Nearly all the time, these statements are wrong. There are no reasons or excuses for racism.

How are our biases reinforced?

Once learned, stereotypes and prejudices resist change, even when evidence fails to support them or points to the contrary.

People will embrace anecdotes that reinforce their biases, but disregard experience that contradicts them. The statement “Some of my best friends are _____” captures this tendency to allow some exceptions without changing our bias.

Each of us has a part to play in calling out racism and misinformation, or as Trump says, “Fake News.”

Where can you start?

Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created “Project Implicit” to develop Hidden Bias Tests—called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world—to measure unconscious bias.

Take the test.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/australia/takeatest.html

“Implicit Association Tests” (IATs) can tap those hidden, or automatic, stereotypes and prejudices that circumvent conscious control. Project Implicit—a collaborative research effort between researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington—offers dozens of such tests.

Using the IAT procedure may be useful beyond the research purposes for which it was initially developed. It may be a tool that can jumpstart thinking about hidden biases:

• Where do they come from?
• How do they influence our actions?
• What can we do about them?

Committing to change

If people are aware of their hidden biases, they can monitor and attempt to ameliorate hidden attitudes before they are expressed through behaviour. This compensation can include attention to language, body language and the stigmatisation felt by target groups.

Common sense and research evidence also suggest that a change in behaviour can modify beliefs and attitudes. It would seem logical that a conscious decision to be egalitarian might lead one to widen one’s circle of friends and knowledge of other groups. Such efforts may, over time, reduce the strength of unconscious biases.

It can be easy to reject the results of the tests as “not me” when you first encounter them. But that’s the easy path. To ask where these biases come from, what they mean, and what we can do about them is the more laborious task.

Recognizing that the problem is in many others—as well as in ourselves—should motivate us all to try both to understand and to act.

The global impact that the COVID-19 virus is significant.  In an era where misinformation is more common than uncommon, fighting fear is challenging. Measures can and are continuing to be put in place to reduce the spread of the virus.

Now we need to actively follow the World Health Organisation and put in place a plan to reduce the racism associated with it.

How are you addressing this issue in your workplace and community?

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About the author: Colleen Condon

Colleen likes to keep things creative in all that she does, often using marshmallows as a source of inspiration.

Everyone knows that ongoing learning is essential for both personal and professional success and yet, for many, this means hours of attending dead boring training or completing’ losing the will to live’ eLearning modules. Colleen’s mission is to end tedious professional development while ensuring targeted outcomes for learners and businesses.

Colleen has honed her skills over the last 20 years across multiple industries and locations. Her previous role saw her overseeing the training and development needs of over 60, 000 employees across 13 countries in the APAC region.  This enabled her to hone skills that celebrated diversity and understanding human commonality through learning, and that in the absence of a common language, flip charts and coloured markers helped her to overcome most challenging situations.

After taking a ‘go away package’, in 2019, Colleen founded her own business, Facilitated Training, harnessing her global learning experiences and sharing them through ready to use learning resources, specializing in leadership, mentoring, guest speaking, creative problem solving, filling the gap of high quality, customisable training resources and tools.