Managers and people with prominent roles and design leeway fulfil a central role in appreciating diversity and dealing critically with prejudices and risks of discrimination. Unconscious prejudices, so-called biases, are part of all human perception and judgement processes. They allow us to fall back on “cognitive shortcuts” in everyday life and thus simplify numerous situations in which we form opinions and make judgements. This helps our ability to act, but also makes our judgements prone to error. For example, we judge people who are similar to us more positively. Furthermore, stereotypes about groups can distort our evaluations and even distort the order in assessments (e.g. in applicant or student assessments). This in turn can affect the quality of research, teaching and practice.
The Equal Opportunities Office therefore offers the Diversity and Gender Lunch Talks on the topic of ‘Biases in Science’ as an awareness-raising and qualification programme for all members of the University of Kassel. The events include a public lecture - which is also available as a recording afterwards - and an in-depth university-internal workshop.
