Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2020

DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30846-1

Publication Title

Lancet

Volume

395

Issue

10234

Pages

1457 (7 pp.)

Abstract

Since the publication of Unequal Treatment in 2003,1 the number of studies investigating the implicit bias of health-care providers and its troubling consequences has increased exponentially. Bias can occur in all three psychological components: affects (ie, prejudice), cognition (ie, stereotypes), and behaviour (ie, discrimination). Implicit bias refers to prejudicial attitudes towards and stereotypical beliefs about a particular social group or members therein. These prejudicial attitudes and stereotypical beliefs are activated spontaneously and effortlessly, which often result in discriminatory behaviours.2 This definition is consistent with how implicit bias is defined in psychology3 and in literature on health disparities.4 Despite how the definition of implicit bias includes both affective and cognitive components, researchers, health-care providers, educators, and policy makers often use the term broadly and do not differentiate prejudice and stereotyping. Literature on health disparities focuses primarily on implicit prejudice and few studies have systematically investigated the role of implicit stereotyping in patient care.5 Consequently, implicit bias in previous research generally refers to implicit prejudice. Therefore, we specify whether we mean implicit prejudice or implicit stereotyping, particularly when we review findings from previous studies.

Comments

This is the authors' peer-reviewed and accepted for publication manuscript version of a paper published in The Lancet (London, England). The final published version can be found here https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30846-1.

Original Publication Citation

Hagiwara, N., Kron, F. W., Scerbo, M. W., & Watson, G. S. (2020). A call for grounding implicit bias training in clinical and translational frameworks. Lancet (London, England), 395(10234), 1457. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30846-1

Share

COinS