Japan Society for Implicit Bias Research: Implicit Bias and Prejudice: On the Translation of Implicit/Unconscious bias

In Japanese, implicit/unconscious bias is sometimes translated as ‘無意識の偏見’ (muishiki no henken, unconscious prejudice). However, I would like to argue that it is inappropriate.

In 2009, Banaji and Greenwald, the proponents of “implicit bias,” used a statistical method called meta-analysis on 184 papers, revealing that the race IAT predicts racially discriminatory behavior. Subsequent studies have supported similar conclusions.

However, they state that the results of the race IAT do not imply prejudice.

For psychologists, prejudice generally refers to attitudes towards others based on group attributes (such as gender, age, race, nationality, occupation, religion, place of origin, hobbies, etc.), often negative. In a narrow sense, it refers to a person’s explicit and conscious dislike or aversion towards a specific group of people.

On the other hand, the implicit level of bias revealed by the race IAT is “It is not at all the same thing as racism or sexism, but it indeed is evidence of an association in our heads that I would call the roots of prejudice” Can we unlearn implicit biases? With Mahzarin Banaji, PhD (apa.org)

In other words, the racist behaviors clearly demonstrated in the paper that “the race IAT predicts racially discriminatory behavior” were “social behaviors in interracial interviews, doctors' treatment recommendations for a cardiac patient, and evaluation of job applications in a hiring situation” and were not the negative or hostile behaviors typically characterized as prejudice.

According to Banaji et al., translating Implicit Bias as “Implicit Prejudice” can be misleading. The term “prejudice” is often used negatively, potentially giving an unnecessarily negative impression of the term Implicit Bias. Implicit Bias can also be measured for positive things. Therefore, it is safer not to adopt the term “prejudice.” Since Bias also means “tendency,” it is better to use the term “バイアス” as it sounds in English.