University-wide Seminar: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

Date: 

Thursday, January 21, 2021, 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

Online event

Mahzarin Banaji, Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology, Senior Advisor to the Provost, and one of the country’s leading experimental social psychologists on the enduring evidence of “implicit bias,” is offering a general session for the Harvard community, including faculty, staff, students, postdoctoral fellows, trainees, and others, on Thursday, January 21, 2021, from 3-5pm.

The seminar will discuss how we can make wise decisions untainted by beliefs and assumptions we hold without even knowing that we do, and the science of “implicit bias” which demonstrates how barely conscious thoughts and feelings can affect our decisions about others, based on their age, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, nationality, or other demographic characteristics that are completely irrelevant—and that our own values tell us ought to be irrelevant—to decision-making. This session is relevant for all of us in the Harvard community, given the universal implications of the many consequential decisions we make in our work and life. 

90-minute presentation followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. Closed captioning will be provided. The seminar will not be recorded.

 

(Note: This webinar was rescheduled from 1/20 to 1/21 so as not to conflict with the US Presidential Inauguration)

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