i just watched a debate where someone stated that implicit bias does not affect behavior, so here’s a thread of ways that implicit bias affects behavior, starting with healthcare!

implicit bias in healthcare professionals: a systematic review

“35 articles found evidence of implicit bias in healthcare professionals; all the studies that investigated correlations found a significant relationship between level of implicit bias and lower quality of care”

obviously, correlation does not equal causation. however, as shown in the wording itself, this study investigated those (previously found) correlations, and a significant relationship could be proven!

(please note that this study in particular is a meta-analysis. it went over other articles and analyzed them, and utilized research from those articles to either affirm or disprove the findings of other articles.)

from this same article: “correlational evidence indicates that biases are likely to influence diagnosis and treatment decisions and levels of care in some circumstances and need to be further investigated”

once again, because correlation does not equal causation, we need hard numbers, and additional evidence. according to the harvard medical practice study:

“there were significant differences between hospitals that serve a predominantly minority population and other hospitals. that is, blacks were more likely to be hospitalized at institutions with more AEs [adverse events] and higher rates of negligence.””

according to a 2002 study by the national academy of sciences institute of medicine, “a consistent body of research demonstrates… that U.S. racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive even routine medical procedures and experience a lower quality of health services.”

in healthcare alone, implicit bias (which extends beyond race, even though race was the main factor discussed in this thread) greatly affects the actions made by doctors. and, in a time where doctors are making life or death decisions, this bias can prove to be fatal

the notion that implicit bias is something that effects only thoughts rather than action, is asinine. espically considering that thought directly affects actions. if bias effects thought, and thought affects actions, than how does bias not affect action?