The Bias in Bias


Anubhav Arora . Nava Haghighi
Final Project for MIT 6.894

The goal of this project is to let you explore racial bias, specifically preference for Black/African American or White/Caucasian, in the United States.


For our visualizations, we are using the data collected through the Harvard Implicit Association Test* (IAT) from 2008-2018. Let's get to work!
*Although the accuracy of the test has been questioned, it is still the most commonly used method for measuring implicit bias.

First, let's see where you stand with your perception of other people's racial bias.



What do you think the average racial bias for the following groups are?

Move the slider to record your answer before checking it.



African American  Female  Boomer  Nevada  MBA


Prefers Black


Prefers White






White  Male  Silent Generation  Massachusetts  MD Degree


Prefers Black


Prefers White






White  Female  Millennial  New York  Master's Degree


Prefers Black


Prefers White




How did you do? Good? Bad? Regardless of the result, did you find the task easy? That's because the human brain by nature likes to categorize and put things in buckets.
In fact, the whole point was not to show you how good you were at guessing the average bias for a given group. It was to show you that all humans categorize. Another name for this inherent categorization is bias. And therefore


Bias is human.


You are not a bad person because you are biased. We are all biased. It is however important to see, recognize, and acknowledge our biases and how they may impact our decisions daily.




Now let's see about your own bias, how racially biased do you think you are?


Prefer Black


Prefer White



Let's check what the average racial bias for the average you looks like!

I am a from with a .



Average Racial Implicit Bias for someone like you:


Prefer Black


Prefer White

Surprised? Don't be!

Not all biases are conscious.



The slider below shows what the average you also thought their actual racial bias was. This measurement of bias, also known as "known" bias is the bias we consciously exhibit. It reflects our ideologies but it usually does not reflect the unconscious biases, also known as your "implicit" bias. The Harvard IAT test measures the implicit bias.



Average Racial Explicit Bias for someone like you:


Prefer Black


Prefer White

More importantly, this average is one number which is grouping many people through broad categorization. But

YOU are not necessarily the average you!



And especially when it comes to something as complex as bias, external factors such as diversity of your neighborhood growing up, or the average income of your neighborhood relative to diversity may have played a larger role than simply your race, gender, or education. Remember that Bias, whether implicit or explicit, is complex.

We have designed this visualization to help you see beyond the broad generalizations. These generalizations, while useful in showing trends, hide many stories of people who are not the "average".
Now let's explore bias without strengthening our existing biases.


BIAS BY COUNTY

Average Racial Bias (IAT) Score for every county from 2008-2018
source: Harvard IAT Race Dataset
source: Opportunity Insights Neighborhood Characteristics by County




Implicit and Explicit Racial Bias Score Histogram for all Counties


Plotting Implicit against Explicit Racial Bias Score for all Counties