Last updated on January 27, 2026
I sometimes get inquiries from folks about implicit bias. I’ve written quite a bit about the subject. Here’s a guide on which articles you might want to read.
What’s new?
- 2026 01 27: My implicit bias videos. UCLA is no longer hosting them, so they’re now on my site. Please share widely. Here’s the first video on the playlist (Full Playlist).
- 2025 10 28: Can DEI Workers Strike Back? – LPE Project (Noah Zatz & Jerry Kang)
- 2024 Little Things Matter a Lot (Daedalus): a piece in the National Academies journal about how to think about the small impacts of implicit bias integrated over time and lots of people, with discussion of how “implicit bias” has changed legal doctrine.
- 2023 Interview of Prof. Calvin Lai (Implicit Bias Scholar) | youtube
- 2021 What Judges Can Do about Implicit Bias
- 2022 Behavioral Realism about Color confusion
- Drafts in the publication process (taking a bit of time)
National Academies Workshop, Little Things Matter (a Lot) (2021.03.22-23)
Quick and Dirty Primers
- TEDx talk “Immaculate Perception?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwYFhJO9t50&list=PLWG_vsmMJ2clEeGKVyrOIKlOYrjFnVKqa
- 2009 Implicit Bias Primer for Courts (brief primer written for the National Center for State Courts)
- ABA Video (10 mins) — Hidden Injustice: Bias on the Bench
- For stereotype threat, consider the (similar) amicus briefs I helped write in the Fisher v. Texas
affirmative action cases:- Fisher I amicus brief (2012)
- Fisher II amicus brief (2015)
Podcasts/Audio
- Interview with Dr. Dravon James, Everyday Peace on the Psychology of Social Bias (2021 02 08)
- Podcast with Jonathan and April Perkins on implicit bias 101 (2020 11 23)
- Podcast on implicit bias with Goodwin law firm Chairman (2019 03 29)
Detailed Introduction to the Science
- 2005 Trojan Horses of Race (first half of paper; this is the first major treatment in the law reviews)
- 2007 Implicit Social Cognition and Law (first half)
- 2010 Seeing through Colorblindness (first part)
- 2012 Implicit Bias in the Courtroom (first two parts, with application to criminal and civil cases)
Real world implications / experiments
- 2010 Are Ideal Litigators White? (showing correlation between implicit bias and evaluation of depositions)
Legal and Policy Implications
- Discrimination in evaluation
- 2010 Seeing through Colorblindness (after the science summary) (behavioral realism and four quadrants of possible response).
- Affirmative action / race consciousness
- 2006 Fair Measures (implications for “affirmative action”-like policies)
- 2023 Behavioral Realism about Color confusion
- Media Policy
- 2005 Trojan Horses of Race (second half of paper; mass media policy)
- 2012 Bits of Bias (implicit biases from media and cyberspace)
- Personal responsibility / culture
- 2011 New Cultural Defense (brief comment on chapter discussing whether implicit biases are “personal” or just “cultural”)
- 4 quadrants analysis — going beyond just the prejudice polygraph.
- 2012 Missing Quadrants (for a psychology audience)
- 2010 Seeing through Colorblindness (includes similar analysis, more for a legal audience)
- Courtroom: judges and juries
- Implications for Equal Protection / Intent Doctrine
- Title VII
- Retaliation: 2025: Can DEI Workers Strike Back? – LPE Project
Political Reactions
- 2017 My Book Review of Jonathan Kahn’s Race on the Brain (critique from the Left) solicited by and published in Science
- 2010 Implicit Bias and Pushback from Left (brief essay re resistance from the Left)
- 2010 Seeing through Colorblindness (sections discussing Right wing backlash)