Researchers have documented unconscious bias in a variety of contexts and professions. These studies demonstrate unfavourable impacts on members of underrepresented groups and women. Learning about and striving to counteract unconscious bias assists in promoting practices for increasing diversity and inclusion in organisations and improving overall outcomes of relative minorities.

• Recruiters' negative stereotypes and bias increase the likelihood of ethnic discrimination (Bertrand et al., 2005; Decker et al., 2015; Lee et al., 2015; Rooth, 2010).
  

• Résumés containing minority racial cues, such as a distinctively African American or Asian name, lead to 30% to 50% fewer callbacks from employers than do otherwise equivalent résumés without such cues (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004; Oreopoulos, 2011; Gaddis, 2015). Given the crucial role of hiring in occupational attainment, this form of discrimination substantially contributes to labor market inequalities by blocking racial minorities’ access to career opportunities (Pager, 2007).

• ANU researchers say 75 per cent of Australians tested using the Implicit Association Test by a joint initiative of universities including Harvard, Yale and the University of Sydney hold a negative implicit or unconscious bias against Indigenous Australians. Their findings are published in the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues. The researchers analysed the "implicit bias" of over 11,000 Australian participants over a 10-year period, and how this can lead to racist attitudes or behaviour. People with all levels of education were guilty of bias.

• A study that appeared in proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences acknowledged that gender biases stem “from repeated exposure to pervasive cultural stereotypes that portray women as less competent (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012).

• A 2007 study found that 76% of respondents showed an implicit preference for people without disabilities, compared to 9% for people with disabilities.

• The likelihood of ethnic discrimination increases, when organizations have no standardized evaluation procedures of resumes (Midtboen, 2016).

• First- and second-generation of migrants suffer to a very similar extent from ethnic discrimination (Carlsson, 2010; Oreopoulos, 2011).

Recent articles on unconscious bias have focused on how to combat it and address it in workplaces and other settings.

Harvard Business Review, Actively addressing unconscious bias in recruiting, 16 June 2023.

Forbes, Cognitive Distortions, Unconscious Bias, Cognitive Bias, Logical Fallacies: What You Need To Know To Protect Yourself, May 13 2023.

The Guardian, Unconscious bias: what is it and can it be eliminated?, 3 December 2018.

Read/listen to Fabi’s latest comments on unconscious bias in an interview with Lawyers Weekly (‘Tackling the legal profession’s hidden hurdle’, 4 August 2023) - available in article and podcast formats on all podcast platforms (including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeart).

Harvard Implicit Association Test - Harvard University

ABA Implicit Bias Toolkit, American Bar Association