Breaking Bias: Where Stereotypes and Prejudices Come From–and the Science-Backed Method to Unravel Them
Anu Gupta
Hay House LLC (September 2024)

Two Eyes, Two Ears, and One Mouth: Observe and Listen 80% + Talk 20% = Learn 100% 

Long ago, Aristotle observed, “You are what you do repeatedly. So your excellence isn’t an act, it’s a habit.” The same can be said of decadence. Good or bad, habits reveal biases that are positive or negative. Consider this passage from Anu Gupta’s Introduction to Breaking Bias:

“Bias is the building block of most challenges we face individually, locally, and globally. It shows up in our interactions with co-workers, family members, and strangers. It impairs the services we provide in our professional lives, such as health care, education, or policing. It compromises the products we design, such as apps, clothing, and the code for artificial intelligence. It limits the cultural narratives we construct in film, theater, and the arts. It hinders the success of policy solutions we recommend for issues like climate change, disinformation, mass incarceration, and public health crises. Most likely, it shows up in how we treat ourselves and one another.” (Pages xviii-xix) There in the proverbial “nutshell,” you have specific examples of negative biases.

Warren Buffett once suggested that bad habits tend to resemble chains that are “too light to notice until they are too heavy to break.” Gupta wrote Breaking Bias in order to help those who read it to free themselves from “stereotypes and prejudices.” That is, HOW to complete a process he characterizes as a “journey” to achieve these objectives (i.e. the ultimate “destination”):

o Reduce bias and stereotyping
o Improve social connection
o Strengthen relationships
o Build social trust

o Regulate negative emotions
o Create positive emotions
o Build resilience
o Enhance creativity

o Boost memory
o Reduce stress
o Reduce anxiety
o Deepen curiosity

Gupta makes skillful use of several reader-friendly devices, including an acronym — PRISM — that refers to five “tools” by which to avoid or overcome barriers throughout the aforementioned “journey.” They are Perspective taking; Prosocial behaviors; Individuation; Stereotype replacement; and Mindfulness. They comprise a “toolkit.” Gupta carefully explains how and when to use each, sometimes in combination.

As I read and then re-read Breaking Bias, I envisioned the process more as a transformation or a conversion than as a breaking away or unraveling. Eliminate or at least minimize negative biases. This may be what His Holiness the Dalai Lama has in mind when sharing his thoughts in the book’s Foreword: “As we all belong to our big human family, and since interdependence is part of our reality, a sense of oneness of humanity is crucial for all of us. I commend the author and hope this book will help people to come closer to one another through breaking biases on the basis of secondary differences like race, religion, rich or poor that divide us. ”

Paraphrasing Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can transform your negative biases into positive convictions or think you can’t, you’re probably right.”

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Breaking Bias: First, highlight key passages Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to head notes and key points posed within the narrative. You can also record your responses when completing various “PRISM Exercises.”

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.