Racial Bias and Police Shootings: “The Mind of the Village”

Here is an episode from The Hidden Brain, of one of my favorite radio programs that uses social science and storytelling to explain the hidden patterns behind our behavior and beliefs (it’s also a podcast).

In this segment the host explores the role unconscious racial bias might play in recent police shootings of unarmed black men. It’s a powerful — and highly sociological — examination of one of our most vexing social problems. Below I include the link to an implicit bias test they discuss at length.

Here is a link to the Implicit Association Test if you’d like to check your own biases. There are actually several tests covering different types of bias including race, gender and sexuality. The results are likely to surprise you.