Celia Hodent: Why everyone is susceptible to unconscious bias

Celia Hodent is a veteran game experience consultant with a doctorate. She has studied the subject of unconscious bias. She talked about the issue in a fireside chat with Andrea Rene, cofounder of Whats Good Games and the co-emcee at our recent GamesBeat Summit 2019 event in April.

I’ve embedded a video of their discussion in this post. And if you want more expertise on this subject, you’re in luck.

Hodent is holding a five-hour master class session on Unconscious Bias on June 6 in Culver City, California. In that class, Hodent will explore the limitations of the human mind, and how people can “identify unconscious biases in the workplace, account for them, and redesign the company processes and general culture to create a more inclusive environment.”

The problem is that humans do not think rationally.

“We believe that we have an accurate perception, an accurate memory, or that we can multitask efficiently,” Hodent said. “We believe that we are in full control of our decisions according to our values, that we have free will, that we can understand others, that we are logical beings. Sadly, this is all a lie.”

Her workshop will explore some of the most common cognitive and social unconscious biases that trick us into making bad decisions in everyday life and prevent us from building a more inclusive environment, even if we understand the importance of diversity.