Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
by Jennifer L. Eberhardt PhD
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2019
352 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
From one of the world's leading experts on unconscious racial bias, a personal examination of one of the central controversies and culturally powerful issues of our time, and its influence on contemporary race relations and criminal justice.
You don't have to be racist to be biased. Unconscious bias can be at work without our realizing it, and even when we genuinely wish to treat all people equally, ingrained stereotypes can infect our visual perception, attention, memory, and behavior. This has an impact on education, employment, housing, and criminal justice. In Biased, with a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Jennifer Eberhardt offers us insights into the dilemma and a path forward.
Eberhardt works extensively as a consultant to law enforcement and as a psychologist at the forefront of this new field. Her research takes place in courtrooms and boardrooms, in prisons, on the street, and in classrooms and coffee shops. She shows us the subtle - and sometimes dramatic - daily repercussions of implicit bias in how teachers grade students, or managers deal with customers. It has an enormous impact on the conduct of criminal justice, from the rapid decisions police officers have to make to sentencing practices in court. Eberhardt's work and her book are both influenced by her own life, and the personal stories she shares emphasize the need for change. She has helped companies that include Airbnb and Nextdoor address bias in their business practices and has led anti-bias initiatives for police departments across the country. Here, she offers practical suggestions for reform and new practices that are useful for organizations as well as individuals.
Unblinking about the tragic consequences of prejudice, Eberhardt addresses how racial bias is not the fault of nor restricted to a few "bad apples" but is present at all levels of society in media, education, and business. The good news is that we are not hopelessly doomed by our innate prejudices. In Biased, Eberhardt reminds us that racial bias is a human problem - one all people can play a role in solving.
"Starred Review. Compelling and provocative, this is a game-changing book about how unconscious racial bias impacts our society and what each of us can do about it." - Kirkus
"Jennifer Eberhardt's work is essential to helping us understand racial inequalities in our country and around the world." - Michelle Alexander, author of New York Times bestseller The New Jim Crow
"This book helps us to scientifically view how racial bias works in our own minds and throughout society. We could not ask for a better guide to understand this reality than Jennifer Eberhardt. Her research reveals critical information that can help leaders better understand how biases can impact our judgment and how we are perceived by the communities we are sworn to serve." - Kamala D. Harris, United States Senator from California
"Jennifer is one of the great thinkers and one of the great voices of our time…I believe her book will change the conversation on race in our society - and perhaps our society itself." - Carol Dweck, author of New York Times bestseller Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
"Drawing on her pioneering research, Jennifer Eberhardt's new book offers a powerful exploration of how racial bias seeps into our classrooms, college campuses, police departments, and businesses." - Bruce Western, author of Punishment and Inequality in America and Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
"Biased is deeply relevant to education and other fields of work, within the U.S. and globally. Dr. Eberhardt's work offers a touchstone for educators, leaders, lawmakers, and all those who want a society that serves everyone equally." - Linda Darling-Hammond, author of The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity will Determine our Future
"This is not someone who is just doing work in the ivory tower of a university. This is someone who is really out in the trenches working with police departments and the criminal justice system." - Chris Magnus, Chief of Police, Tucson, Arizona
"She is saying things that make people uncomfortable, but she has the evidence to back up the reality of what's she's describing… [her work is]…original, provocative, and rigorous. I think she has changed the way we all think about the American dilemma of race." - Susan Fiske, Psychologist, Princeton University
"Groundbreaking." - Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy
This information about Biased was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt is a professor of psychology at Stanford and a recipient of a 2014 MacArthur "genius" grant. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She is co-founder and co-director of SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions), a Stanford Center that brings together researchers and practitioners to address significant social problems.
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