Take a bunch of people.
Get them to read some very racist and / or sexist statements and ask if they agree.
Unsurprisingly, very few will do.
Get another group to read some milder statements that could be construed as racist or sexist and ask if they agree.
Again, unsurprisingly, some will and some won’t.
Now, here’s the interesting part.
Place them in a hypothetical hiring situation where they are choosing from candidates with a variety of races and genders.
The group that disagreed with the mildly bad statements, of course, showed the least racist and sexist behaviour.
But the group that agreed with the mildly bad statements was less likely to discriminate than those that disagreed with the stronger statements.
Happens consistently in such situations, apparently.
Why?
The explanation given by the experts (which works for me) is related to the amount of self awareness the situation creates.
The ‘strongly worded’ group kinda felt that they had demonstrated their ‘virtuousness’ and were less inclined to question their thoughts and beliefs in the hiring situation.
The ‘mildly worded’ group had been primed to be more thoughtful and self aware. To be questioning those thoughts and beliefs and to be considering some of the ‘finer nuances’ in such situations.
Self awareness of our own thoughts and beliefs is an important first step in making change.
It’s very easy end up going through life on auto-pilot.
To eat, drink and generally live in a certain way.
Often because that’s what we’ve always done.
When we stop and really question or beliefs, habits, opinions, etc………
That’s often the first step to lasting change (check myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting if you like the sound of that more than the standard January yo-yo diet).
You may decided your beliefs, habits and opinions are bang on.
And stick with them.
You may find ones that serve you better.
But the questioning and self-awareness if always Step 1 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Raciest’ Hall and Matt ‘Sexiest’ Nicholson
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RISE Macclesfield – myrise.co.uk
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