Navigating Bias in Your Brand’s Storytelling
You are biased.
Fear not; according to numerous studies and expert articles, we all are. And the second we each admit and accept this, the better off we’ll be.
Not because we’ve unburdened ourselves. Bias itself is not a deep, dark secret. It’s the nature of our biases that usually (used to) bring some sense of shame and/or pause for thought and opportunity for growth.
If you have to ask what that means, then you aren’t a survivor of systemic discrimination. That’s fortunate for you, but it means you especially need to take heed. Because you are (knowingly or unknowingly) part of the problem.
Our biases permeate our thoughts, and how we communicate those thoughts. Socialization and peer pressure play a role, but in the end the choice about what you say and how you say it comes down to you.
If you don’t want you or your brand to end up canceled or on a “don’t” list, you need to do some self-reflection and recognize how you can do better.
(Much in the way your own communications would come across to those who harbor their own baggage and bias around a topic.)
Take a moment to pause and reflect:
(And, it’s the right thing to do).
Image © JR Korpa courtesy Unsplash
Not because we’ve unburdened ourselves. Bias itself is not a deep, dark secret. It’s the nature of our biases that usually (used to) bring some sense of shame and/or pause for thought and opportunity for growth.
Thinking better
Once we come clean, we can then talk through our biases and work together toward educating ourselves and mitigating bias and its effect.If you have to ask what that means, then you aren’t a survivor of systemic discrimination. That’s fortunate for you, but it means you especially need to take heed. Because you are (knowingly or unknowingly) part of the problem.
Our biases permeate our thoughts, and how we communicate those thoughts. Socialization and peer pressure play a role, but in the end the choice about what you say and how you say it comes down to you.
If you don’t want you or your brand to end up canceled or on a “don’t” list, you need to do some self-reflection and recognize how you can do better.
Check yourself: 12 areas of bias
* Ability bias. Run, don’t walk. You’ve gotta see it to believe it. Hear that? That’s the sound of… In addition to being examples of cheesy ad ploys, using this or similar language excludes people with disabilities. Habit and a socially shaped ableist worldview mean many of us are guilty. But before you protest that these are “just expressions,” unless your product/service relates directly to the sense/capability in question, why aren’t you leading with the story of how your product/service benefits the people you’re trying to reach?
* Age bias. Young people are reckless, horny, selfish. Midlifers are staid, thirsty, hopeless. Seniors are lonely, fragile, obsolete. There are few things more annoying than a broad generational brush. (Just ask anyone of any generation.) These are categories that we make up and then backwardly try to assign attributes to. It’s true there are common touchpoints for the folks who lived through them. But don’t appeal to an assumed experience or pain point—ask. And don’t try to “relate” to anyone who’s not your peer by using slang or other signifiers that aren’t authentic to your own experience. Cringey.
* Citizen/community/origin bias. We are the greatest city/state/nation and no one else can _____like we can. There are over 20,000 cities/towns/villages/districts in the U.S. across 50 states in a nation that’s 1 of 195 countries. Have you been to them all? Pride is great until it goes too far (i.e., degrading or undermining others). A friendly rivalry between known entities is one thing. A persistent pitting of Us versus Them erects barriers that tend to trap ignorance and paranoia. People are people, not flesh flags or corporeal boundary markers.
* Cognitive bias. Neurodivergent people are/are not ____. I know the best way to do _____. Okay, the second example is mostly arrogance, which is a much more personal form of bias. But it does feed into what’s implied in the first statement. At the risk of painting more crude, broad strokes, neurodivergence is akin to making a path through the meadow instead of taking the designated trail. It’s different, not less than. Every story telling doesn’t follow the exact same arc (even when it’s the same base story), so open your mind to alternative ways of doing, thinking, and acting on cues and prompts.
* Cultural bias. Everybody knows… The only thing “everybody” knows is that “everybody” is not a target group or demographic. Not “everybody” lives the way you do. We tend to surround ourselves with people who are similar to us. But in that comfort bubble it’s easy to forget that the majority of humanity is living in other bubbles. You risk falling into traps when you use specific cultural references (e.g., TV or movie characters, song references, memes, etc.) that become more insider and exclusionary than something to bond over. It’s a fine line to walk between bonding over an (assumed) shared experience or reference and that awkward “what are you guys talking about?” De-center yourself in the narrative and either find out what your target audience is actually experiencing and enjoying or keep it at a higher human level.
* Educational bias. Drop-outs are dumb, trade schools are for also-rans, college graduates are elitist. Education is a socioeconomic gauge, not an intelligence meter. You can receive the best education and have no common sense or useful skills, and you can be a brilliant high school dropout who changes the world. And intelligence varies by context. What you need to survive in a classroom is different (not better) than what you need to survive in a job or on the street (and vice versa). Speak to the core of who people are and what they want/need, not what they do or the degrees hanging on their walls or the letters they put after their names. (Roles/titles/careers are fungible these days, anyway.)
* Ethnic/racial bias. [Too many offensive prejudices to list]. There is no scientific basis for racial classification. It’s no more valid now than it was when created hundreds of years ago to justify mistreating and trafficking other human beings. Yet it’s part of our persistent need to categorize for comfort. Still, it should go very much without saying that you should not be making stereotypes, prejudice, or caricature part of your outreach strategy. Perpetuating ignorance is ill-advised anyway, but certainly not sustainable when you consider some of the “minorities” in the U.S. will be, ahem, the majority within the next 10 years.
* Gender bias. Ladies and gentlemen. S/he. Discussions about transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, and intersex people may not be popular (safe) right now, but it doesn’t change the fact of their existence. Acknowledge and accommodate according to your beliefs, but if you are a self-actualized human, you will realize that the specifics of someone’s identity have nothing to do with you, and that respecting all people for who they are and how they see themselves is the only way your message has any true engagement or meaning.
* Geographic bias. Country bumpkins. Rednecks. Suburban snots. City slickers. Assuming the best or worst of people because of where they live is ridiculous. You have no idea of their life’s journey, and what kept or brought them where they are. Maybe it was education-, job-, family- or partner-related. Maybe it was some special interest. Maybe it was economics. Or…maybe it was the result of another bias, and they were redlined out of other options.
* Political bias. People who support _____ do not share my values or priorities. Humans are full of contradictions. And fears. And needs. Any of which can influence their decisions when it comes to politics. The question is whether there’s a difference of opinion over policies and laws or the intent behind them. Promoting safety and well-being based on objective data and metrics are one thing. Legislating for intimidation, control, profit, and/or malice based on your personal prejudices or outsized sense of worth and knowledge is something else entirely. Before stepping into the arena and weighing in, make sure you know what’s hidden behind the agenda—on both sides.
* Religious bias. Our god is the one true god. Our beliefs are universal. So say certain members of every. single. religion. While story themes tend to resemble each other across faiths, those point to human, moral truths, and belief in a higher being is hardly a prerequisite. The point is that religion is a highly personal, fractious, and fractioned thing. Because if there was one true god and way of thinking, there wouldn’t be thousands of versions of religious practice under Christianity alone. Like every other area on this list, don’t assume that just because it’s inside or outside your personal sphere of experience that it’s true/right/better or false/misguided/inferior, respectively.
* Age bias. Young people are reckless, horny, selfish. Midlifers are staid, thirsty, hopeless. Seniors are lonely, fragile, obsolete. There are few things more annoying than a broad generational brush. (Just ask anyone of any generation.) These are categories that we make up and then backwardly try to assign attributes to. It’s true there are common touchpoints for the folks who lived through them. But don’t appeal to an assumed experience or pain point—ask. And don’t try to “relate” to anyone who’s not your peer by using slang or other signifiers that aren’t authentic to your own experience. Cringey.
* Citizen/community/origin bias. We are the greatest city/state/nation and no one else can _____like we can. There are over 20,000 cities/towns/villages/districts in the U.S. across 50 states in a nation that’s 1 of 195 countries. Have you been to them all? Pride is great until it goes too far (i.e., degrading or undermining others). A friendly rivalry between known entities is one thing. A persistent pitting of Us versus Them erects barriers that tend to trap ignorance and paranoia. People are people, not flesh flags or corporeal boundary markers.
* Cognitive bias. Neurodivergent people are/are not ____. I know the best way to do _____. Okay, the second example is mostly arrogance, which is a much more personal form of bias. But it does feed into what’s implied in the first statement. At the risk of painting more crude, broad strokes, neurodivergence is akin to making a path through the meadow instead of taking the designated trail. It’s different, not less than. Every story telling doesn’t follow the exact same arc (even when it’s the same base story), so open your mind to alternative ways of doing, thinking, and acting on cues and prompts.
* Cultural bias. Everybody knows… The only thing “everybody” knows is that “everybody” is not a target group or demographic. Not “everybody” lives the way you do. We tend to surround ourselves with people who are similar to us. But in that comfort bubble it’s easy to forget that the majority of humanity is living in other bubbles. You risk falling into traps when you use specific cultural references (e.g., TV or movie characters, song references, memes, etc.) that become more insider and exclusionary than something to bond over. It’s a fine line to walk between bonding over an (assumed) shared experience or reference and that awkward “what are you guys talking about?” De-center yourself in the narrative and either find out what your target audience is actually experiencing and enjoying or keep it at a higher human level.
* Educational bias. Drop-outs are dumb, trade schools are for also-rans, college graduates are elitist. Education is a socioeconomic gauge, not an intelligence meter. You can receive the best education and have no common sense or useful skills, and you can be a brilliant high school dropout who changes the world. And intelligence varies by context. What you need to survive in a classroom is different (not better) than what you need to survive in a job or on the street (and vice versa). Speak to the core of who people are and what they want/need, not what they do or the degrees hanging on their walls or the letters they put after their names. (Roles/titles/careers are fungible these days, anyway.)
* Ethnic/racial bias. [Too many offensive prejudices to list]. There is no scientific basis for racial classification. It’s no more valid now than it was when created hundreds of years ago to justify mistreating and trafficking other human beings. Yet it’s part of our persistent need to categorize for comfort. Still, it should go very much without saying that you should not be making stereotypes, prejudice, or caricature part of your outreach strategy. Perpetuating ignorance is ill-advised anyway, but certainly not sustainable when you consider some of the “minorities” in the U.S. will be, ahem, the majority within the next 10 years.
* Gender bias. Ladies and gentlemen. S/he. Discussions about transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, and intersex people may not be popular (safe) right now, but it doesn’t change the fact of their existence. Acknowledge and accommodate according to your beliefs, but if you are a self-actualized human, you will realize that the specifics of someone’s identity have nothing to do with you, and that respecting all people for who they are and how they see themselves is the only way your message has any true engagement or meaning.
* Geographic bias. Country bumpkins. Rednecks. Suburban snots. City slickers. Assuming the best or worst of people because of where they live is ridiculous. You have no idea of their life’s journey, and what kept or brought them where they are. Maybe it was education-, job-, family- or partner-related. Maybe it was some special interest. Maybe it was economics. Or…maybe it was the result of another bias, and they were redlined out of other options.
* Political bias. People who support _____ do not share my values or priorities. Humans are full of contradictions. And fears. And needs. Any of which can influence their decisions when it comes to politics. The question is whether there’s a difference of opinion over policies and laws or the intent behind them. Promoting safety and well-being based on objective data and metrics are one thing. Legislating for intimidation, control, profit, and/or malice based on your personal prejudices or outsized sense of worth and knowledge is something else entirely. Before stepping into the arena and weighing in, make sure you know what’s hidden behind the agenda—on both sides.
* Religious bias. Our god is the one true god. Our beliefs are universal. So say certain members of every. single. religion. While story themes tend to resemble each other across faiths, those point to human, moral truths, and belief in a higher being is hardly a prerequisite. The point is that religion is a highly personal, fractious, and fractioned thing. Because if there was one true god and way of thinking, there wouldn’t be thousands of versions of religious practice under Christianity alone. Like every other area on this list, don’t assume that just because it’s inside or outside your personal sphere of experience that it’s true/right/better or false/misguided/inferior, respectively.
* Socioeconomic bias. Poor people are lazy, rich people are gifted, the middle class are complacent.
Make a note: socioeconomic status is not about inherent ability. There is no rich/poor gene or luck of the draw. Go behind the smokescreens and you’ll see there is, however, a history as old as this country of systemic repression, terror, and destruction of advancements made by those not in the majority. If you need to address socioeconomics as a brand, be truthful and aspirational, not complicit in perpetuating assumptive ideas or behaviors.
Make a note: socioeconomic status is not about inherent ability. There is no rich/poor gene or luck of the draw. Go behind the smokescreens and you’ll see there is, however, a history as old as this country of systemic repression, terror, and destruction of advancements made by those not in the majority. If you need to address socioeconomics as a brand, be truthful and aspirational, not complicit in perpetuating assumptive ideas or behaviors.
Being better
Unsure about any of these takes? Some might seem like common sense. Some may seem too soft. Others may seem too harsh.
(Much in the way your own communications would come across to those who harbor their own baggage and bias around a topic.)
Take a moment to pause and reflect:
- Are your personal beliefs influencing what your brand says and shares? Should they be?
- Have you defined brand values, and do your communications align completely with these values in every instance?
- Have you studied/surveyed your target audience to truly understand what they need, which may be separate from what you’re trying to communicate to them?
- Can you consistently apply the Golden Rule to your brand’s words and behaviors? (There’s a reason it transcends cultures and belief systems.)
(And, it’s the right thing to do).
Image © JR Korpa courtesy Unsplash
