Guidance for Behavior Analysts in Addressing Racial Implicit Bias

Jaramillo et al. (2022) wrote a how-to paper for behavior analysts.

They asked: How can we use ABA tools to spot and shrink our own racial implicit bias?

The authors mapped self-monitoring, data sheets, and reinforcement to clinician behavior.

The paper gives step-by-step tactics, not numbers.

It tells you to count your own biased comments, set a reduction goal, and reward yourself for meeting it.

Fong et al. (2016) came first. That paper taught clinicians to list their own and their client’s cultural values. Jaramillo et al. (2022) keeps the self-work idea but zooms in on race-specific bias.

Hamama et al. (2021) tested bias change in parents. Watching Sesame Street autism clips cut implicit bias. Jaramillo’s self-monitoring plan gives clinicians a way to get the same result without videos.

Beene (2019) and Szabo (2020) both treat diversity as a behavior you can shape. Jaramillo adds the twist: treat your own hidden bias as the behavior to shape.

You already take data on clients. Now take data on yourself. Track every time you assume a Black client’s parent is less educated or call a Latino teen “aggressive” for the same behavior you label “assertive” in a white teen. Set a daily limit and reinforce yourself when you stay under it. Five minutes of nightly self-counting can cut bias where it lives—in your own mouth and mind.