The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds

Description

Unconscious bias: persistent prejudiced behaviour that clashes with our consciously held beliefs. Its effects can be corrosive, even lethal. It robs organizations of talent, science of breakthroughs, politics of insight, individuals of their futures and communities of justice. So what real-world steps can we take to counteract it? Drawing on ten years' immersion in the topic, Jessica Nordell digs deep into the cognitive science and social psychology that underpin efforts to create change, and introduces us to the people who are practising a range of promising methods: the police using mindfulness to regulate high-stress situations; the doctors whose diagnostic checklists help eliminate bias in treatment; the lawyers and educators striving to embed equality all the way from the early-years playroom to the boardroom. Biased behaviour can be ended. This path-breaking, inspiring and indispensable book shows us how.

Jessica Nordell is a journalist, award-winning radio producer and writer who studied at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and now lives in Minneapolis. As a young journalist, her newfound success at landing pitches under her initials, rather than her full name, sparked her fascination with unconscious bias. Since then, her groundbreaking work has appeared in the Atlantic, New Republic and New York Times, among other publications. The End of Bias is her first book.

Despite revolutions in our understanding of bias, we're still much better at documenting the problem than solving it. When it comes to prevention and cure, Jessica Nordell's powerful book is a breakthrough. With state-of-the-art science and gripping narratives, she reveals steps what individuals, groups, and institutions can take to fight prejudice -- Adam Grant, author of Think Again In an age of snap judgements and empty moralizing, The End of Bias is a lifeboat. Jessica Nordell accompanies her incredible depth of research with the kind of attention to nuance, self-examination, and genuine compassion that marks the difference between information and wisdom. This book will not just want to make you be a better person - it will convince you that others can be too -- Jenny Odell, author of How To Do Nothing Full of evidence-based interventions, The End of Bias demonstrates that change is possible. In need of some hope? Start here! -- Beverly Daniel Tatum, bestselling author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race Groundbreaking * Guardian * An exhaustively researched, illuminating book on what leads to bias and how to avoid those pitfalls * Irish Times *