Date: Friday, April 17th, 2026
Time: 11:30 - 12:50 PM
Location: Workshop (Room 1116, 11th floor) - 100 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510)
Title: Sidelining Bias: Applied Social Psychology That Reduces Consequences of Bias in Real-World Contexts
Abstract: In recent years, much research has conceptualized bias as an automatic response, cultivated through exposure to bias in society. From this perspective, combating bias requires reducing a proclivity for bias within individuals as in many “implicit-bias training” efforts. I will introduce an alternative approach that begins with the presumption that people are inherently complex, that is, including multiple, often contradictory patterns of selves and goals. When we conceptualize the person this way, we can ask when biased selves are likely to emerge and whether we can sideline this bias—alter situations in potent ways that elevate alternative selves and goals that people will endorse and for which bias would be non-functional. Using both classic and contemporary examples, I will show how my sidelining bias interventions have led to meaningful and lasting improvements in real world outcomes, including higher achievement, reduced school suspensions, and lowered recidivism to jail for tens of thousands of children and adults.