Abstract:
Considerable attention has been given to the Implicit Association
Test (IAT), which finds that most people have an
implicit and unconscious bias against members of traditionally
disadvantaged groups. Implicit bias poses a special
challenge for antidiscrimination law because it
suggests the possibility that people are treating others differently
even when they are unaware that they are doing so.
Some aspects of current law operate, whether intentionally
or not, as controls on implicit bias; it is possible to imagine
other efforts in that vein. An underlying suggestion is that
implicit bias might be controlled through a general strategy
of “debiasing through law.”