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Unconscious Bias: A Case Study

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Social Theory, privilege and unconscious bias are key factors that contribute to inequities and inequalities in society. These concepts impact the positioning of people in society and potential challenges or advantages they face. This essay will explore my positionality in society relating to these concepts.
I have an advantageous positionality in society. Identifying as an eighteen-year-old heterosexual, New Zealand European (white) female gives me white privilege and more opportunities in life than my LGBTI, non-European counterparts. Although, being female I have a slight disadvantage as males are seen to be more superior to women. I’m from an upper-middle class family who sent me to a private girls’ boarding school. This gave me opportunities …show more content…

These attitudes and stereotypes are influenced by how we are raised, past experience and socialisation. There are many types of bias such as gender, ethnicity, height and age. In hindsight, I realised I had unconscious bias in that situation towards non-Europeans, males, older people and someone who looked like they had less wealth. Thus, I was biased towards people who are like me or similar to me and more trusting of them. This is an affinity bias (Tiatia-Seath, J., 2017). This unconscious bias meant that I was less trusting of those who are not like me. In the media, non-Europeans are portrayed as criminals or people that are untrustworthy, and in turn, I subconsciously believed this and it contributed to my bias. In the situation, I was in subconsciously I thought that this person conformed to this stereotype and bias in head, leaving me with no trust, power or social capital. Stereotypically, males are strong and women are weak. This was a confirmation bias for me where I was looking for evidence to prove what I believe is true. I’m not strong and I looked for signs that the male was strong, such as defined muscles (Tiatia-Seath, J., 2017).
In addition to high social capital and unconscious bias I also have privilege. Since I conform to most societal norms I have privilege that others do not such as heterosexual, economic, able-bodied, educational and white privilege. Privilege is an advantage, right or benefit (Cormack, 2017). White privilege suggests that white people have superior access to opportunities, goods and services that society has to offer. Therefore, I have less barriers in comparison to other ethnic groups. Each day

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