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107 Law Libr. J. 325 (2015)
We All Do It: Unconscious Behavior, Bias, and Diversity

handle is hein.journals/llj107 and id is 321 raw text is: LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL Vol. 107:2 [2015-151 Diversity Dialogues ... We All Do It: Unconscious Behavior, Bias, and Diversity* Ronald Wheeler** Mr. Wheeler suggests that many of our behaviors, in the workplace and elsewhere, are motivated by unconscious triggers and emotions, including racial biases. These behaviors, however, can be prevented by making conscious choices that enhance diversity. il The academic literature on diversity in librarianship and in the legal profes- sions tends to focus on institutional barriers to racial and ethnic diversity. Things like law school and library school admissions demographics, law firm employment demographics, and the demographics of legal academe have all been discussed.' These types of discussions, while necessary, may also allow most law librarians to feel absolved of any responsibility for diversity. They reinforce the notion that the average law librarian has little control over changing the systemic forces that impede diversity. Yet there are steps that all law librarians, and indeed all people, can take to foster diversity in the workplace. My hope here is to demonstrate that we can all contribute to advancing diversity in our workplaces. What We Know from Social Psychology 12 Much of what we do on a daily basis is unconscious. Psychologists and other social and behavioral scientists are in agreement about this point.2 In fact, one of the least controversial propositions in all psychology is that people are not always * @ Ronald Wheeler, 2015. ** Director of the Law Library and Information Resources, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts. 1. See, e.g., Meera E. Deo, Looking Forward to Diversity in Legal Academia, 29 BERKELEY J. GEN- DER, L. & JUST. 352 (2014) (discussing the underrepresentation of women of color in legal academe); John Nussbaumer & Chris Johnson, The Door to Law School, 6 U. MASS. ROUNDTABLE SYMP. L.J. 1 (2011) (discussing the reasons minorities are shut out of law schools); Sarah E. Redfield, The Educa- tional Pipeline to Law School-Too Broken and Too Narrow to Provide Diversity, 8 PIERCE L. REv. 347 (2010) (discussing the low numbers of minorities in the legal professions); Karen Sloan, Legal Educa- tion's Diversity Deficit: Despite Efforts, Modest Rise in Minority Enrollment, NAT'L L.J., May 12, 2014, at 1; see also Alyssa Thurston, Addressing the Emerging Minority: Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Law Librarianship in the Twenty-First Century, 104 LAw LIBR. J. 359, 2012 LAW LIBR. J. 27. 2. See, e.g., SIGMUND FREUD & JAMES STRACHEY, THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE (1965); Richard E. Nisbett & Timothy D. Wilson, Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes, 84 PSYCHOL. REV. 231 (1977); Timothy D. Wilson & Nancy Brekke, Mental Contamination and Mental Correction: Unwanted Influences on judgments and Evaluations, 116 PSYCHOL. BULL. 117 (1994). 325

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