In this video, Dr. Lorie Fridell, CEO of Fair & Impartial Policing, discusses implicit associations—a fundamental aspect of implicit bias.

Implicit associations are the links in our heads between categories of people and the characteristics we have come to associate with those groups.   Groups are categorized in many ways – age, race and ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, etc. – resulting in negative, positive, or neutral associations.

A few examples of implicit associations are:

– many people link attractive people to competence

– many people link people of color to crime, threat, and violence

– many people link non-English speaking people to lack of intelligence

Implicit associations impact us outside of conscious awareness and yet can affect our interactions with the stereotyped individuals.  Because of implicit associations a police officer may interpret the behavior of a teenager as highly suspect and overlook that same behavior in an older adult. 

To understand more about implicit associations, or to learn more about the implicit-bias-awareness-training provided by FIP, contact us today.

Watch the full video here: