Mahzarin Banaji

This lecture will provide insights into how our minds work, and the often surprising and even perplexing manner by which implicit bias operates. The overarching purpose of the seminar is to reveal the mental blind spots that keep us from reaching our goals, especially in decisions that involve attention to social group qualities rather than the person. Professor Banaji will advance ideas about what implicit bias is, where it comes from, where its impact can be seen, what it predicts, and whether it is malleable. The overarching purpose is to understand implicit bias (a term she and her colleagues coined in the early 1990s) so that we can outsmart it – for our own good and that of our society and its future.

Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University, investigates the disparities between conscious and implicit attitudes and beliefs, focusing on social group attitudes and behaviors in adults and children. As the founder of outsmartingimplicitbias.org and co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, Banaji applies evidence from social cognition science to improve organizational practices. With a prestigious career spanning Yale and Harvard, Banaji has garnered numerous awards and fellowships, including induction into the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

For questions about this event, please contact lectures@uw.edu or call (206) 543-5900.