Do you know about affinity bias and explicit bias? Learn more about each and how to reduce them in your workplace.
Cognitive biases affect everyone, even those who consider themselves rational and open-minded. We can still make mistakes when it comes to evaluating or reasoning due to beliefs we have unconsciously.
Affinity bias and explicit bias, in particular, can affect leaders in a workplace. This blog post will define each bias, provide workplace and offer steps on how to avoid these instances. Microaggressions in the workplace also play a role in how staff collaborate and work productively together.
What Is Affinity Bias?
Affinity bias happens when we favor people who share our interests, backgrounds, or experiences. This bias leads us to feel more comfortable with people who are “like” us and we may unconsciously reject those who act or look different than we do.
Examples of Affinity Bias
Examples of affinity bias in the workplace often start with the job interview and continue once an employee is hired.
Some examples of affinity bias include:
- Preferring candidates with similar qualifications or educational backgrounds
- Seeing someone as qualified or intelligent because they attended a specific university
- Assuming someone is a good team fit because they are close to your age
- Dismissing new ideas from people who hold different perspectives
- Failing to acknowledge team members with different skill sets as much as those with traits similar to the leader’s.
What is Explicit Bias?
Explicit bias refers to conscious attitudes or prejudices towards different groups, which can manifest as positive or negative judgements and cause us to treat those around us differently. Explicit bias can affect any aspect of someone’s identity, including age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or even their ability.
When these biases aren’t addressed properly, they can affect productivity, work relationships, trust, and efforts to creat a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Examples of Explicit Bias
An example of explicit bias is the reluctance to hire older individuals due to misconceptions about their adaptability and tech-savviness.. Another is the belief that a specific gender is more suited for a specific role.
How to Reduce Incidences of Affinity Bias and Explicit Bias At Your Workplace
While it’s challenging to completely eradicate these biases, some steps can be taken to reduce the chance that decisions are severely influenced by them.
Learn about unconscious bias.
Awareness and diversity training help team members recognize and understand their biases, which limits their impact.
Determine where biases are likely to occur in your company.
Biases often start in the hiring processes but can also affect promotions and project assignments. Some companies look at resumes without names or genders to base their thoughts on merit alone.
Encourage your team to discuss bias.
Creating a work culture that encourages open communication about biases can positively influence how your team works together.
How Implementing a Diversity Calendar Helps An Organization Achieve Their Goals
Setting diversity and inclusion goals not only shows a commitment to welcoming people of all ages, genders, races, backgrounds, and abilities to work with you, but also creates a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging allows every team member to feel seen, valued, heard, and accepted, which means they are more productive and this leads to greater success for your business.
A diversity calendar, featuring multicultural events and religious holidays, helps leaders to schedule respectfully and be inclusive of all employees.
FAQs
How impactful is affinity bias?
Affinity bias occurs when someone favors people like them with similar backgrounds or interests. This means that we tend to feel more comfortable with people like us. This means that we have an unconscious bias toward those who may look or act differently than us. This can affect the type of people you hire as a DEI leader.
What is the difference between explicit and implicit prejudice?
Explicit prejudice refers to conscious, deliberate negative attitudes or beliefs towards a group or its members, often expressed openly through discriminatory actions or statements. In contrast, implicit prejudice involves unconscious, automatic negative associations or biases toward a group that can influence behavior and decisions without the individual’s awareness. While explicit prejudice can be directly observed and measured through overt expressions, implicit prejudice is more subtle, often assessed through indirect methods that reveal hidden biases.