Unconscious bias

There’s an aspect of your values, beliefs and attitudes system that helps you make decisions which is called the unconscious bias. Bias is a tendency to either lean towards or against someone or something. These tendencies are influenced by your background, cultural environment and personal experience and can either be something you’re conscious (explicit) or unconscious (implicit) of.



By making quick judgements that you’re unaware of, you unconsciously make decisions that influence your behaviour such as who you sit next to, who you pay more attention to, who you help more etc. Even people who don’t think they are being discriminatory will have an unconscious bias because this has been formed throughout their lifetime. Examples of these biases in the classroom could be staff helping girls out more than boys, staff believing boys are more aggressive than girls, staff letting certain pupils answer questions while ignoring others etc.

Project Implicit is a research project between social scientists who are interested in implicit social cognition. The team have created a series of tests where you can check your bias.

Each test takes approximately five minutes to complete and you don’t have to give any personal details. However, it’s worth spending some time at the beginning to fully understand how to carry out the test effectively. If you want to test your bias you can access them on the following website. These tests are optional, but if you can, try and take at least one. Note: These tests require access to a physical keyboard.

How do you think the unconscious biases highlighted in the tests may effect your role when working with pupils? Share your reflections in the comments area, below.

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