As Rosie mentioned in a previous post, this month is Celebrate Diversity Month – the perfect time to open your eyes to all the wonderful backgrounds, cultures and traditions that make up the teams here at Thrive Tribe. These should, of course, be celebrated, but it’s possible that sometimes we tend to surround ourselves with people who are similar to ourselves, rather than to celebrate having a diverse peer group. If you do this without realising, it could be down to unconscious bias.

There are 4 key types of bias as follows:

Social bias: A preference towards those of the same social class

Professional bias: A preference towards those who appear professional or educated

Projection bias: A tendency to project one’s own beliefs, morality, priorities etc onto others

Bandwagon bias: A preference towards the most popular opinion, 

It’s worth reflecting on whether you feel you may be displaying any of these types of bias, and if so, how you can make some changes so that you’re able to fully celebrate the diverse groups of people you meet. By finding value in other people’s unique characteristics, you’ll also find you’re able to have more meaningful interactions.

If you’re interested in what your own unconscious biases maybe, you can take various tests here on a variety of topics, e.g. race, disability, sexuality & weight

These tests were developed by an organisation called Project Implicit who worked in partnership with Harvard University. They were interested in thoughts and feelings outside of our awareness and control and in educating the public about hidden biases that they may hold.‍