Page 20 - Bedfed Conf2016 Flip Book

20
We can tackle our
bias, says
psychologist
a psychologist told conference this year that bias in any work place, including the police force, is down to the unconscious brain, or large ping pong ball.
Dr Peter Jones, who described himself as a “fat white bloke”, also said bias is mitigated by contact.
He explained that we are all neurologically pre-disposed to prefer people who look like us and even have similar names to our own. But he said his study and testing of 15,000 people in the uK shows that this potentially damaging behaviour can be unlearned.
“This pre-disposition can be unpicked. But the Noah’s Ark idea of two of everything doesn’t necessarily work – two black officers, two white, two gay – because, just like on the ark, the tigers will eat the lions and we will bump along rather than get along,” Peter explained.
“A workplace needs to be both diverse and inclusive. The police force has more gazelles and giraffes than a lot of other places but it needs to be inclusive to allow everyone to take part and get promotion.”
Peter said organisations are usually in three categories: low diversity and low inclusion, high diversity but low inclusion and highly diverse and highly inclusive. He said the highly diverse, low inclusion organisations, such as councils who boast of staff speaking 168 different languages, actually allow very little opportunity for promotion for those who weren’t “the same”.
Highly diverse, highly inclusive workplaces, however, showed better staff performance because everyone is allowed to participate and move within the organisation. “So it’s not just about the people – it’s about having the people and allowing them to fairly participate,” delegates were told.
He explained that people process information both consciously (slowly, rule driven and limited in resources) and unconsciously (automatically, fast and intuitively driven) at the same time.
He further pointed out: “We all make decisions every day about someone’s tie or accent but those decisions are usually made by the unconscious brain, or the large ping pong ball, because the conscious, or small ping pong ball, is too busy processing the basic planning stuff and can’t cope with any more information.
“The unconscious sees patterns and makes assumptions so we categorise people without even realising we’re doing it. The brain learns to fire and wire information together. This isn’t a problem most of the time until it affects the decisions someone is
making about a person.
“And when you, as police officers, are tired,
stressed, anxious or rushing, the unconscious takes over and those unconscious patterns are what your decisions become based on – for instance, in Stop and Search. Those informal, unimportant layers of commonality form an important bias.”
He asked: “Do we associate women with the home and men with work? And what can wedoaboutitifwedo?
“We can get people tested so they are aware of any bias they may have. We can watch for our triggers. We can get a colleague to deal with something that we know we have an issue with. We can think about decisions and slow them down.
“Having contact with groups in the community mitigates bias, as does actively remembering people’s names within those groups. Talk about it and then walk the walk because you can’t talk about it and do nothing. Be aware of bias and measure it.
“Take your ping pong balls with you. you haven’t got to be vigilant all the time but take them out when you need them.”
OURREPsAYs
“This was a fascinating and startling input from Dr Peter Jones. The post- lunch slot following on from the main keynote speeches of conference is only for the bravest speaker but Dr Jones was more than up to the challenge, delivering a simultaneously entertaining and thought-provoking talk which contained a number of very practical tips.
“He made clear that it is important to be open about our biases, but to consciously challenge them too. The evidence suggests that there will certainly be bias in the workplace, but it is likely to be far less pronounced in policing than in other walks of life. There is no room for complacency in our service though and the message I will take back to Force is that making decisions under stress reinforces unconscious bias so it’s important to give people time and space to challenge their own thinking. And appropriate humour is a great diffuser of bias.”
ian Middleton
Dr Peter Jones.