Social psychologist Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt, a leading expert on unconscious racial bias, and SFPD Chief Bill Scott discuss Dr. Eberhardt’s groundbreaking research on implicit bias and the consequences of the psychological association between race and crime. When police officers rely on stereotypes instead of facts, routine encounters can escalate and even turn deadly. While explicit bias remains part of the fabric of life in the United States, elected leaders and chiefs of police have increasingly focused on implicit bias, inherently unintentional yet more pervasive. Biases—especially racial ones—influence how people frame and interpret those around them, and they can exist despite people’s best intentions. In policing, the consequences of such biases can be dire.
The conversation took place on the release of Dr. Eberhardt’s book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, in 2019.