For more than 30 years, psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald have been studying the unconscious biases that take root in our brains, coloring everything from hiring decisions to how doctors mete out medical care and judges pass sentence. If you don’t think you harbor any such mental stowaways, tugging you in favor of white over black, straight over gay, or male over female — yes, perhaps even if you’re a proud black lesbian — then log onto Harvard’s Project Implicit and prepare to be disappointed in someone you never knew held such appalling views: you.
The news in Banaji and Greenwald’s new book, “Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People,” is not what we want to hear, either: [cont.]
Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post