Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

In this eye-opening explanation of implicit racial bias, Eberhardt, a MacArthur Fellow and social psychologist at Stanford University, melds laboratory research and personal experience, recounting how she came to understand how the way humans process information impacts the lives of those around them. She lays out psychological research proving that racial bias is wired into human brains; her group’s “was the first neuroimaging study to demonstrate that there is a neural component to the same-race advantage” in facial recognition—the increased ability to distinguish among and recognize people’s faces when they are the same race as the person seeing them (which she also recounts experiencing herself after moving from a majority-black to a majority-white neighborhood as a teen). She also looks at systemic manifestations of bias, such as residential segregation and discrimination in education. In a look at the human impact of bias, Eberhardt explains the bias behind each step in the decision of an Oklahoma police officer in 2016 to shoot Terence Crutcher, a black man whose car had stalled, and interviews his sister about the tragedy of losing a family member under such circumstances. Though there’s a section titled “The Way Out,” Eberhardt doesn’t offer many concrete suggestions for solutions, making the book feel like it overpromises on that element. But Eberhardt’s combination of smartly chosen stories and impressively accessible research makes this essential reading for psychology aficionados and people invested in social justice. (Mar.)