3 Types of Bias and 3 Questions of Agarwal
As I read Pragya Agarwal, Sway, Unravelling Unconscious Bias, many of the books we read since starting this program came to mind; this made it hard to decide which direction to go in writing this post.[1] For this post, I am going to define some key terms related to bias, then I am going to examine three questions that I had while reading the book.
Key Terms
Sway starts the book by defining unconscious bias, “those biases that exist without our conscious knowledge, the ones that manifest themselves in our action and reaction often without us realizing it, rearing their heads when we least expect it and sometimes taking us by surprise.[2] I am grateful for the definition of unconscious bias, but I feel that the term bias needs to be further defined.
In the classes I teach, when I use the term bias, I usually break it down into three categories.
Stereotypes – (Thoughts) when thinking of a group stereotypes are the ideas that help define a particular group.[3] “’women’s talk is more polite than men’s; women use more tag questions (e.g. ‘isn’t it?’) use weaker directives, avoid swearing, and use more empty adjectives (e.g. ‘cute;) than men.’”[4]
Prejudices – (Feelings) when thinking about or in the presence of a particular group member(s) prejudices are the emotions that a person feels toward the group.[5] For example, feeling indifferent or even callous towards out of group members who I see might be hurt or in trouble[6]
Discrimination – (Behaviors) these are the behaviors exhibited towards member of a particular group.[7] Common reported examples include minorities being accused of shoplifting, “denied entrance to a restaurant, bar or club.”[8]
The examples that I used above were mentioned in Agarwal’s book and happened to be negative. In my Cultural and Human Diversity class after I point out the universality of bias, I stress that biases can be positive (The Ohio State Buckeyes are the best football team in the nation) or negative (I don’t like anyone from the state of Michigan).
I appreciated that Agarwal pointed out that in some cases positive bias can be more damaging to individuals. She states, “positive stereotypes are an insidious means of promoting antiquated beliefs about different social groups. . . Such notions can reinforce the idea that differences between black people and white people are biological and perpetuate the dangerous notion of race being a biological determinant category rather than a spectrum.”[9]
Does Agarwal fall into the Identity Trap?
There are some questions that came to mind as I was reading the book. First, I kept wondering what would Yascha Mounk say about her, has she fallen into the Identity Trap? In Chapter Three of The Identity Trap Mounk discusses Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. In a section titled “THE (SUPPOSED) PERMANENCE OF RACISM” Mounk writes “(Derrick) Bell also distrusted the idea that the racial attitudes of most Americans had improved over the course of the civil rights era. “Racism,” he contended, is not “a holdover from slavery that the nation both wants to cure and is capable of curing.” Rather, it is “an integral, permanent, and indestructible component of this society.”[10] Agarwal seems to agree with Bell that there is a permanent indestructible aspect to unconscious biases. She writes “There has been an upsurge in diversity training with the aim of freeing ourselves from unconscious biases, but we cannot erase our biases completely. Awareness and action are possible, obliteration is not.[11] I reviewed the rest of Mounk’s ideological themes for what he terms the Identity Synthesis and I do not believe that she meets any of the other six themes.
Is Agarwal a Postmodernist?
Next, I wondered if she would be considered a postmodernist, having just read Stephen Hicks’ Explaining Postmodernism.[12] Mounk refers to Bell as engaging in postmodern thinking in regarding race and as mentioned above Agarwal shares some of Bell’s ideas. Is it guilt by association? I see Agarwal expressing modernistic thinking throughout her book. Agarwal said “But I had this nagging feeling that a part of me was being stripped away” when someone commented on her behavior by saying “You’re not very Indian.”[13] Here she sees herself as an individual not defined by only one part of her identity (Indian). Additionally, throughout the book Agarwal, like a modernist thinker, relies heavily on science and research studies to emphasize her points. At this point, I would not classify her as a postmodernist.
Is Agarwal biased?
A final question I have is Agarwal exhibiting unconscious bias herself in writing this book? Agarwal begins the book by telling a story of how a male coworker made a biased remark about her being a girl relating it to her mathematical abilities. At the end of her chapter “Sugar and Spice” focusing on gender bias, one of the longest chapters in the book, she says “And to all the skeptics, I would just say “Am I not believed because I am a woman?”[14] Elsewhere she discusses her experience of racial profiling, having the cops called on her and her daughter while shopping. Agarwal believes herself to be a victim of bias. Bobby Duffy speaking on confirmation bias says “we are drawn to and focus on information that reinforces our pre-existing beliefs.”[15] In conducting research for this book, has Agarwal unconsciously only read and/or referenced studies that reinforce the ideas of gender, racial, and other biases that she has experienced? To test this idea, I searched for studies that suggest negative racial bias and/or gender bias does not exist. While the results of my search only turned up one study, Agarwal does not appear to spend time highlighting cases of reverse discrimination.[16] For example, a Swedish research study showed that men were more likely to not get an interview for jobs in fields such as nursing, childcare, early childhood education and house cleaning.[17]
Overall Agarwal’s book was an informative read. This is a topic that I care deeply about. I appreciated her detailing the science behind unconscious bias and the research studies that confirm its existence. I don’t believe her to have an unrealistic view of the prevalence of bias and the difficulty of countering unconscious biases. She provided me some new material for me to present to my students as seek to address these biases.
[1] Pragya Agarwal, Sway, Unravelling Unconscious Bias, (London, UK: Bloomsbury, 2021).
[2] Agarwal, 16.
[3] University of Minnesota, “Social Psychology Chapter 12: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination. Accessed on March 31, 2025. https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialpsychology/part/chapter-12-stereotypes-prejudice-and-discrimination/
[4] Agarwal, 211.
[5] University of Minnesota.
[6] Agarwal, 75-76.
[7] University of Minnesota.
[8] Agarwal, 253.
[9] Agarwal, 130-131.
[10] Yascha Mounk, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, (New York, Penguin, 2023).,62
[11] Agarwal, 22.
[12] Stephen R. C. Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, (Reland Bay, QLD: Connon Court Publishing, 2019).
[13] Agarwal, 14.
[14] Agarwal, 250-251.
[15] Bobby Duffy, Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything, (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2019), 60.
[16] Flaminio Squazzoni, Giangiacomo Bravo, Mike Farjam, Ana Marusic, Bahar Mehmani, Michael Willis, Aliaksandr Birukou, Pierpaolo Dondio, Francisco Grimaldo, “Peer review and gender bias: A study on145 scholarly journals,” Science Advances, 7 no 2, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd0299.
[17] Ali Ahmed, Mark Granberg, and Shantanu Khanna, “Gender Discrimination in Hiring: An Experimental Reexamination of the Swedish Case, PlosOne, 2021, doi.org/10.137/journal.pone.0245513.
About the Author
Jeff Styer
Jeff Styer lives in Northeast Ohio's Amish Country. He has degrees in Social Work and Psychology and currently works as a professor of social work at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Jeff is married to his wife, Veronica, 25+ years. Together they have 4 beautiful children (to be honest, Jeff has 4 kids, Veronica says she is raising 5). Jeff loves the outdoors, including biking, hiking, camping, birding, and recently picked up disc golf.6 responses to “3 Types of Bias and 3 Questions of Agarwal”
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Hi Jeff, I really appreciated the way you thoughtfully worked through different questions to gain a deeper understanding of both the author and the book. I also appreciate how you referenced Argawal’s thoughts on the impossibility of completely eradicating biases. However, action is still possible. What are some steps you’ve taken in your own life to challenge unconscious biases?
Elyse,
I find myself often questioning my thoughts, why did I have that thought about that person. So one of my first steps is just trying to identify when I am having biased thought and then why. What have I heard or seen that led to my having those thoughts. Some days it’s kind of scary when I catch myself having biased thoughts.
Thanks for your blog, Jeff. I appreciate your learning posture and that you seek to incorporate the material into what you are already teaching. Like Elysse, I appreciate the questions asked as you processed the book.
As you teach younger students, what unconscious biases have you observed among them?
Graham,
In my Christian college context there is a lot of negative bias towards the LGBTQ population, Muslim, and pro choice advocates. We interview each of our social work students and ask them about their biases, typically during their second year. Most students are able to see the the dignity and worth of each person and their biases soften. We love seeing the growth in each student as they begin to identify their biases and learn to see them as God does.
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for your post.
If you were to deliver a 30-minute lecture inspired by Agarwal’s book, SWAY what theme or aspect of the book would you focus on, and why?
Shela,
Thank you for your question. I absolutely love brain science so I would be focusing on the brain structures involved in bias. Through my teaching, I focus on several types of bias, but I like talking about gender bias and also racial/tribal bias. I think that many people do not realize that have gender bias, so it is fun pointing those out. I am more worried about my daughters than my sons. Tribal bias can also be entertaining to point out. I like talking about study that was done involving whether people would stop and help someone who was injured after a sporting event. Researchers showed that a person’s likelihood of stopping was dependent upon whether the person was wearing your team’s swag. So there are ways of pointing out a person’s tribal bias without calling them racist.