Cover Story | Implicit Bias: Recognizing the Unconscious Barriers to Quality Care and Diversity in Medicine
(World News Science)

Categorizing people without realizing itis as natural as breathing and allows us to navigate the world. - Howard Ross, author of Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments1 Here`s the thing about implicit bias: it`s ubiquitous. Everyone, including physicians and other health care professionals, has implicit, also called unconscious, biases that affect how they view the world and interact with others.2 These are not the same as explicit biases, in which you`re aware of the positive or negative attitudes you hold, but they can be just as powerful and in some cases damaging. There are several definitions of implicit bias but all come down to the same thing: attitudes or...