Imagine Linda, a convinced and explicit anti-racist, who when making hiring decisions discriminates against ethnic minorities. How can this discrepancy between her explicit values and behaviour be explained?
During the past 10–15 years, researchers have discovered correlations between discriminatory behaviour and so-called implicit bias – stereotypes that are unconscious and automatic but influence behaviour, attitudes and understanding concerning for example ethnicity. Researchers have also shown that these can contradict explicit beliefs and desires.
This phenomenon poses a challenge to moral philosophy; If Linda is not in control or even unaware of her biases, how can she be morally responsible?
In this project, we wish to evaluate the ethical consequences of implicit bias that causes ethnic discrimination by considering this hypothesis: Implicit biases give rise to morally wrongful racist discrimination, for which we are morally responsible to a larger degree and in different ways than we might Think.
Our project aims to contribute to social progress by actively seeking contact with different actors outside of academia, and by suggesting policy changes in order to combat discrimination.
Workshop: Non Ideal Social Ontology III
Publications
- Katharina Berndt Rasmussen & Åsa Burman, ”Människans mörka materia: Om implicit bias och dess filosofiska implikationer”, forthcoming in Filosofisk Tidskrift.
- Katharina Berndt Rasmussen, ”Implicit bias: Människans mörka materia”, Arena Essä, 22 November 2018.
Working Papers
- Katharina Berndt Rasmussen, ”Implicit bias and discrimination”, Institute for Futures Studies, working paper.
- Åsa Burman, ”Collective responsibility for implicit bias”, Institute for Futures Studies, working paper.
Other results
- Alex Madva on “Responsibility for interpreting implicit bias”, Workshop-documentation from ”Non Ideal Social Ontology III: Implicit Bias” (June 11, 2018).
