PHILOSOPHICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISCUSSION OF BIAS…

Philosophical work on the epistemology of implicit bias has focused on three related questions...

 First, do we have knowledge of our own implicit biases, and if so, how?

Second, do the emerging data on implicit bias demand that we become skeptics about our perceptual beliefs or our overall status as epistemic agents?

And third, are we faced with a dilemma between our epistemic and ethical values due to the pervasive nature of implicit bias?

It is plausible that conscious awareness of our implicit biases is a necessary condition for moral responsibility for those biases. Saul articulates the intuitive idea, suggesting that we

abandon the view that all biases against stigmatised groups are blameworthy … [because a] person should not be blamed for an implicit bias that they are completely unaware of, which results solely from the fact that they live in a sexist culture. (2013: 55, emphasis in original)

Most philosophical writing on the ethics of implicit bias has focused on two distinct (but related) questions. First, are agents morally responsible for their implicit biases (§4.1)? Second, can agents change their implicit biases or control their effects on their judgments and behavior (§4.2)?

Brownstein, Michael, “Implicit Bias”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/implicit-bias/