Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

Why unconscious bias training doesn’t work

(Getty images)

It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for Bill Michael, who recently resigned as UK boss of KPMG. While he could have softened the blow, there’s little to find disagreement with in his words

‘After every single unconscious bias training that’s ever been done nothing’s ever improved. So unless you care, you actually won’t change.’

Fighting bias is big business. Over the last three years, diversity and inclusion professionals have enjoyed a surge in demand for their services. In the United States alone, organisations now spend billions of dollars a year on diversity programmes. And it’s a practice which is rapidly making its way across the Atlantic.

Bias training remains deeply contentious

One of the most prominent manifestations of this trend is unconscious bias training. As you might have guessed, measuring and combating biases people don’t know they have can be challenging. The first step in any such programme is therefore to show the participant just how far from grace they truly are. 

Generally, this means taking the Implicit Association Test, which involves first categorising faces into ‘black’ and ‘white’, then concepts into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, before mixing the two together: the idea is that if, for instance, you associate good things with white people, you will respond quicker to categorise items when ‘good’ and ‘white’ share a key than when ‘good’ and ‘black’ share one. Once the test is taken, the participant is debriefed, given some information on unconscious bias theory, and some suggested actions for reducing its effect on their behaviour.

Keir Starmer pledged to introduce a programme like this for himself as well as ‘all’ Labour party staff after referring to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests as a ‘moment’. But bias training remains deeply contentious: it has found itself at the centre of a tug of war between Republicans and Democrats over federal funding for diversity training.

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