Unconscious Bias

Unconscious bias describes the associations we all have that are outside of our conscious control and awareness. These biases often inform quick judgements and assessments we make of people we encounter and are influenced by things like our personal background, wider culture, common stereotypes and personal experiences. Many things can trigger unconscious bias, including someone’s gender, ethnicity and whether someone is disabled.

Unconscious bias can lead to greater inequality during a process such as candidate assessment, as assessors are influenced by negative stereotypes, assumptions or associations rather than an individual’s suitability for the role. This type of unconscious bias often adversely impacts groups who are already underrepresented – for example disabled people, LGBTI people, women and minority ethnic people - as they must work harder to prove themselves against negative unconscious bias.

It is important to also be aware of “affinity bias”, which is a type of unconscious bias where people view favourably those who are similar to themselves. In candidate assessment, an assessor may unconsciously reward those they see as having a similar background or similar path into politics as themselves. This can have a negative impact on the diversity of potential candidates. For more information on handling unconscious bias, see the Attitudes and Assumptions chapter of this Toolkit

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