Promoting Diversity in Tech – Bringing Awareness to Unconscious Biases

In the span of a mere second, the human brain processes 11 million bits of information. That’s a lot of brain-racking. Or is it? The fact is a microscopic fraction of that volume – 40 bits – courses through our brain consciously. The vast majority of the information is processed under the radar of conscious thought. Think respiration, heartbeat and digestion – those autonomic (automatic) nervous system functions that make our bodies hum without us even noticing.

And that’s a problem when some of that unconscious data processing is rooted in a bias about other people based on factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, race and physical ability and emerges in ways that shape our viewpoints and decisions. But it’s an even bigger issue when these unconscious biases lead to inequitable if unintentional treatment of others in the workplace.

Read the full article at: www.semi.org