The article highlights the pervasive issue of gender bias in healthcare, where women often feel dismissed or misdiagnosed by medical professionals. It shares numerous accounts from women across Canada who have experienced medical neglect, often being told their serious symptoms were due to anxiety or other minor issues. Experts suggest that implicit bias training for healthcare providers could help address this problem, emphasizing the need for training that is non-vilifying and provides practical tools to counteract unconscious biases.
A study on pandemic triage decisions during COVID-19 reveals that despite ethical guidelines advocating for impartiality, both the public and professionals often prioritize patients based on characteristics such as age, health status, ethical behavior, family roles, and societal contributions, demonstrating explicit discrimination. While there is minimal evidence of covert discrimination through the strategic use of random allocation, the study underscores the complexity of moral reasoning in triage situations and the gap between ethical guidelines and intuitive biases guiding laypeople's decisions in scenarios of medical resource scarcity.
A study conducted by UCLA researchers has found that perception can be influenced by the associations made between numbers and size through the brain's cognitive process. The study exposed subjects to images of different football jersey numbers and found that the smaller the number, the more likely the subject was to perceive a slimmer player. This research has implications beyond football, as it sheds light on how the brain establishes implicit bias in decision-making and highlights the power of learning in the brain to undo these biases.
An audit of complaints against Sacramento police officers revealed a 10-year-old girl was handcuffed in her pajamas during a probation search related to a stolen car and firearms investigation. The city’s Office of Public Safety Accountability called for a policy on handcuffing minors. The police chief said there is no circumstance where it’s OK to handcuff a 10-year-old, regardless of race. The audit also found a pattern of Fourth Amendment violations of Sacramento community members, specifically Black and Latino community members, during police-citizen interactions. Recommendations for more “clear” policy changes included developing a policy related to handcuffing minors and receiving continuous education and training on implicit bias.
