Skip to content
KnowledgeCity

Unconscious Bias

Challenge your assumptions to make better decisions and build stronger teams.
Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 8 lessons.
Course: On-Demand
Essential Provider KnowledgeCity  8 Lessons ·  22m  in English, Spanish 

Course Description

Unconscious biases are mental shortcuts based on limited information from personal experience, media, or social norms. In this Unconscious Bias course, you’ll learn what unconscious bias is, how it forms, and how it influences your thinking—often without you realizing it. They help the brain make fast decisions but can also lead to inaccurate judgments that affect teamwork, hiring, promotions, and customer service.

The course explains how biases affect interactions based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation. You’ll see how these biases influence professional growth, limit collaboration, and reduce company performance. You’ll also learn how biases show up in decisions about who gets hired, promoted, or assigned to key projects—even when those decisions seem fair on the surface.

More importantly, this course gives you simple tools to spot your own biases and reduce their effect. You’ll discover how to ask the right questions, seek input from others, and make more thoughtful decisions. By taking small but consistent steps, you can build better working relationships, avoid misjudgments, and help your company create a more inclusive and productive environment.

What You'll Learn

  • Define unconscious bias and explain how it forms from personal experience, media, or social norms
  • Identify how unconscious bias affects workplace decisions and relationships, including hiring, promotions, and project assignments
  • Recognize common types of bias, including those based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation
  • Apply simple tools and techniques to spot your own biases and reduce their influence on decision making
  • Evaluate strategies to improve inclusion and overall workplace effectiveness

Key Takeaways

  • Unconscious biases are mental shortcuts based on limited information that help the brain make fast decisions but can lead to inaccurate judgments.
  • Bias can affect teamwork, hiring, promotions, and customer service, even when decisions appear fair on the surface.
  • Biases based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation can influence professional growth, limit collaboration, and reduce company performance.
  • Asking the right questions, seeking input from others, and making more thoughtful decisions can reduce the effect of bias.
  • Small but consistent steps can build better working relationships and help create a more inclusive and productive environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in the Unconscious Bias course?

You'll learn what unconscious bias is, how it forms, and how it influences your thinking, often without you realizing it. The course covers how biases affect interactions based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation, and gives you simple tools to spot your own biases and reduce their effect.

What types of bias does the course cover?

The course covers common types of bias, including those based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation. Lessons include Racial, Ethnic and 'Name' Bias; Gender and Sexual Orientation Bias; and Age and Disability Bias.

How does unconscious bias affect the workplace?

Unconscious bias can affect teamwork, hiring, promotions, and customer service. It influences decisions about who gets hired, promoted, or assigned to key projects, and can limit collaboration and reduce company performance even when decisions seem fair on the surface.

What skills will I gain from this course?

The course builds skills in teamwork, recognizing bias, employment equity, group decision making, and personnel selection, along with techniques to make more thoughtful, inclusive decisions.

What topics are included in the course lessons?

Lessons include What is Unconscious Bias?, The Business Effect of Bias, Racial Ethnic and 'Name' Bias, Gender and Sexual Orientation Bias, Age and Disability Bias, Identifying and Mitigating Unconscious Biases, and a Review.