Ideas worth spreading

How racial bias works -- and how to disrupt it

3,548,109 views | Jennifer L. Eberhardt • TED2020

Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and social media to policing and criminal justice -- and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem.

Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and social media to policing and criminal justice -- and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Support disrupting bias and reducing racial disparities in criminal justice, economic mobility, education and health by donating to SPARQ. We need evidence-based advocacy now more than ever to make a just society.

About the speaker

Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Professor, author

See speaker profile

A social psychologist at Stanford University, Jennifer L. Eberhardt conducts research on race and inequality.

Jennifer L. Eberhardt | Penguin Books, 2019 | Book

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society — in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces and criminal justice system. Yet she also offers us tools to address it. Eberhardt shows us how we can be vulnerable to bias but not doomed to live under its grip. Racial bias is a problem that we all have a role to play in solving.

Stanford SPARQ, 2020 | Article

"Where Do We Go From Here? Insights from Social Science"

While recognizing the power of bias is necessary to confront it, its effects need not be inevitable. Social science can help provide critical insights, tools and strategies to disrupt racial bias in all its forms. The team at SPARQ, Dr. Eberhardt’s research center at Stanford University, has curated stories, science and solutions to help people make sense of the current moment and begin to envision a path forward. Check out their resource on race, policing and social change.

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Support disrupting bias and reducing racial disparities in criminal justice, economic mobility, education and health by donating to SPARQ. We need evidence-based advocacy now more than ever to make a just society.