Presented By: Department of Psychology
Interventions to Reduce Unintentional Bias: From Individual to Institutional Change
Patricia G. Devine, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Abstract: People often struggle with a conflict between their consciously-held nonprejudiced beliefs and automatically activated unintentional biases. This talk will review the theoretical components necessary to produce enduring changes in the expression of unintentional bias, and present evidence from a program of work on the Prejudice Habit-Breaking Intervention. This intervention promotes awareness and concern about discrimination and implicit bias, and teaches people cognitive strategies to overcome unintentional bias. This intervention has been adapted to several populations and contexts, and has been effective not only at creating enduring change in awareness and concern, but consequential behavioral outcomes and even institutional change. This work encourages researchers to carefully consider whether their laboratory measures of implicit bias are adequate operationalization of the breadth of behaviors caused by unintentional bias.