The Unhelpful Bias Cycle

Not all bias is unconscious. Not all unconscious bias is unhelpful.

Be clear, though, that to be human is to be biased. The shortcutting of information is a human biological cerebral need. We wouldn’t be able to function effectively if our brain didn’t have the capacity to make assumptions and create heuristics due to the sheer amount of information it has to process. However, due to repeated inputs, socialisation, cultural messaging etc, stereotypes and biased information work their way into our psyche and they then play out in our behaviours.

Bias is our biggest enemy when it comes to sustained and sustainable change, so how we move forward must always be cognisant of this. That’s why it’s so important to surround ourselves with a diversity of lived experiences, and listen and act, recognising those voices that are very different from our own.

Knowing that we are all biased, we have to break the cycle of our unhelpful biases, which then support our systems, which perpetuate in society, which then reinforce our bias, and we get stuck in a vicious circle and very little changing.

I've visualised this, and I'm sharing it in the hope it will help you with having conversations about bias, inclusion and where the responsibility lies.

I'll be expanding on this and how it impacts architecture and the Built Environment in the book I'm writing, but the model is applicable to all.