A landmark exploration of the ways our unconscious mind shapes our thinking and behaviour when it comes to race, stereotyping, inequality and how we view others.
‘Jennifer Eberhardt gives us the opportunity to talk about race in new ways, ultimately transforming our thinking about ourselves and the world we want to create.’ Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
‘Jennifer Eberhardt is one of the great thinkers and one of the great voices of our time.’ Carol Dweck, author of Mindset
‘Groundbreaking... essential reading for anyone interested in how we become a more just society.’Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy
Professor Jennifer Eberhardt is a Stanford Social Psychologist and one of the world’s leading experts on racial bias. In Biased, she draws on groundbreaking research to demonstrate that even without explicit racism, our unconscious biases powerfully shape our behaviour leading to racial disparities in all sectors of society.
In a global society of increased migration and social movement, Biased highlights the social problems that arise when different races meet, and demonstrates the stubbornly persistent role of racial bias in a world where economic and geographic realities are rapidly changing.
Perhaps more importantly, Biased not only describes one of the most fundamental problems of our age, but puts forward solutions. Unconscious bias is a common human condition to be recognised and managed, not a sin to be punished. Only through understanding comes change.
About the Author
Dr Jennifer Eberhardt is a professor of psychology at Stanford. She has a PhD from Harvard University, and is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including a 2014 MacArthur 'genius' award. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She is widely considered one of the world's leading experts on racial bias.
Industry Reviews
This book is deep. Deep because Jennifer Eberhardt digs right down to the lowermost areas of mindsets, customs and attitudes. She does so logically, thoroughly, and comprehensively, in a way that I really believe has never been done before. It is very rarely that you can call something highly intellectual, deeply personal, and beautifully accessible at the same time. This book is rational, honest, depressing but inspiring. Jennifer Eberhardt makes it clear that racism operates at all levels, and it fills me with hope to know that she is fighting it at all levels. More power to you, sister. The world needs you. -- Benjamin Zephaniah
Jennifer Eberhardt's work is essential to helping us understand racial inequalities in our country and around the world. Her groundbreaking research and deep insight makes it possible for individuals and communities to face our deeply-rooted human biases with greater compassion and courage. We avoid talking about race for fear it will divide us, but avoidance inevitably leads us to repeat past mistakes and create conditions in which old wounds fester rather than heal. Eberhardt gives us the opportunity to talk about race in new ways, ultimately transforming our thinking about ourselves and the world we want to create. -- Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
Jennifer Eberhardt is one of the great thinkers and one of the great voices of our time. Everything she writes transforms the way people see things. Every talk she gives changes people's lives. There is nobody like her. She has unique insights into contemporary society and a unique ability to evoke images, emotions, and understandings that people will never forget. I believe her book will change the conversation on race in our society - and perhaps our society itself. -- Carol Dweck, author of Mindset
In the next decade there is a chance to make unprecedented progress in confronting America's history of racial inequality which has created a society where racial bias remains one of the most challenging problems our nation faces. The hope for progress is greatly increased by Jennifer Eberhardt's groundbreaking new book on implicit bias. Biased presents the science of bias with rare insight and accessibility, but it is also a work with the power and craft to make us see why overcoming racial bias is so critical. Jennifer Eberhardt is one America's preeminent social psychologists and her book will be essential reading for anyone interested in how we become a more just society.
An illuminating and readable account of how racial stereotypes and assumptions can cause social devastation and keep huge inequalities in place. It seeks to show how things can change for the better if we are honest and embrace a degree of discomfort about understanding how race works in reality. -- Dr Priyamvada Gopal, University of Cambridge
