Unconscious Bias training tries do teach that, but I've always found the framing and delivery to be counter-productive.
They give everyone tests which reveal that primitive part of your brain. Essentially they want to shock you by forcing you to fail. It is almost like they are trying to shame people, which is a terrible way to teach.
Well yeah, step one is showing that there is a problem. Bias training has to do something for the not insignificant amount of people that don’t believe that they have a noticeable bias. If you actually want the training to be effective you have destroy the “but I can’t be racist because...”
There’s nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to having bias: women think other women are less competent than their male coworkers, trans women struggle with thinking of other trans women as men, black men find other black men threatening. Your first thought is the one you’ve been conditioned to think and is broadly speaking shared by everyone. It’s when you don’t stop to have the second thought — your own thought that’s the problem.
“No, that’s silly. I’ve seen her work — she absolutely knows what she’s talking about.”
“She’s a woman. Full stop.”
“That guy is just minding his own business and given zero actual signs of being a threat.”
What I'm talking about is the difference between telling people they're inherently flawed ("you have unconcious biases you'll never defeat") instead of that they have a choice to make (”racism as a willingness to let that primitive part of the mind be in command").
What would you say is a pedagogically better way to help people consciously compensating for that part of your brain, and especially what's the best way to make someone aware of it without shaming them?
They give everyone tests which reveal that primitive part of your brain. Essentially they want to shock you by forcing you to fail. It is almost like they are trying to shame people, which is a terrible way to teach.