In this Funny TED Talk, Muslim Woman Shows How Unconscious Bias is Ruining Lives

Mechanical engineer, author, political commentator, and social activist; winner of the 2007 Young Australian Muslim of the Year, the 2010 Young Queenslander of the Year and the 2015 Queensland Young Australian of the Year; and founder of Youth Without Borders, Sudan-born Australia-based Yassmin Abdel-Magied is aggressively working on changing the world.

In this hilarious yet powerful TED talk, Yassmin shared an experiment conducted by The Boston Symphony in 1952, to prove how unconscious bias sneaks in when you least expect it:

“There’s this really famous experiment in the space of unconscious bias and that’s in the space of gender in the 1970s and 1980s. So orchestras, back in the day, were made up mostly of dudes, up to only 5% were female. And apparently, that was because men played it differently, presumably better, presumably. But in 1952, The Boston Symphony Orchestra started an experiment. They started blind auditions. So rather than face-to-face auditions, you would have to play behind a screen.

“Now funnily enough, no immediate change was registered until they asked the auditioners to take their shoes off before they entered the room: because the clickety-clack of the heels against the hardwood floors was enough to give the ladies away. Now get this, there results of the audition showed that there was a 50% increased chance a woman would progress past the preliminary stage. And it almost tripled their chances of getting in. What does that tell us? Well, unfortunately for the guys, men actually didn’t play differently, but there was the perception that they did. And it was that bias that was determining their outcome.”

The bias that held women back as late as 1970 was both conscious and unconscious; nothing has changed, even after decades of human existence. Essentially, Yassmin says, you are more biased than you think. And, she is right. If you’re human, you have bias, and that it impacts almost every variation of human identity: from race, gender, and sexual orientation to body size and religion. Harvard University researcher Mahzarin Banaji writes in Harvard Business Review:

“Most of us believe that we are ethical and unbiased. We imagine we’re good decision makers, able to objectively size up a job candidate or a venture deal and reach a fair and rational conclusion that’s in our and our organization’s best interests. But more than two decades of research confirms that, in reality, most of us fall woefully short of our inflated self-perception.”

Bias is as natural to human beings as breathing; that’s partly why Yassmin, a trained boxer who wears a hijab, is somewhat forgiving when it comes to the assumptions and judgments that come along with her headscarf. So, while unconscious bias is ingrained in all of us, how do we create a just world? Look past your initial perceptions. Yassmin explains:

“Unconscious bias is not the same as conscious discrimination. I’m not saying that in all of you, there’s a secret sexist or racist or ageist lurking within, waiting to get out. That’s not what I’m saying. We all have our biases. They’re the filters through which we see the world around us. I’m not accusing anyone, bias is not an accusation. Rather, it’s something that has to be identified, acknowledged and mitigated against. Bias can be about race, it can be about gender. It can also be about class, education, disability. The fact is, we all have biases against what’s different, what’s different to our social norms. The thing is, if we want to live in a world where the circumstances of your birth do not dictate your future and where equal opportunity is ubiquitous, then each and every one of us has a role to play in making sure unconscious bias does not determine our lives.

“We have to look past our unconscious bias, find someone to mentor who’s at the opposite end of your spectrum because structural change takes time, and I don’t have that level of patience. So if we’re going to create a change, if we’re going to create a world where we all have those kinds of opportunities, then choose to open doors for people. Because you might think that diversity has nothing to do with you, but we are all part of this system and we can all be part of that solution.”

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