How the brain creates bias: Racism-awareness exhibit at Moncton museum
Behind Racism encourages mindfulness, reflection in participants through series of science-based activities
Pam Cyr and Joanne Poirier needed a moment to process their experiences after they attended a thought-provoking exhibition recently.
They work for the City of Moncton, which has encouraged all of its employees to attend Behind Racism: Challenging the way we think, a travelling exhibit now at the Resurgo Place museum.
Created by the Ontario Science Centre in partnership with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, it helps people understand, and reflect on, how the brain works and the science behind bias.
With interactive, science-based activities in the first stage, visitors to the exhibit learn how the brain acts quickly to make a decision based on what the person has learned over time. But when challenged to think differently — the reactions slow down.
"It's almost like you can't take your first instinct of what situation you're in, you cannot be as quick to form an opinion," said Cyr.
The activities were as simple as identifying colours and sorting between junk food and healthy food, but always with a twist to trick the brain.
Cyr said she found it difficult to co-ordinate her physical response as her brain came up with quick answers, sometimes leading her to press the wrong button with her hands.
Sophie Auffrey, the museum's heritage development officer, said these quick reactions the brain makes can become the source of bias, which can lead to racism and discrimination.
"So basically, biases help us think faster, help us think quicker," she said.
"It's a natural thing to have biases, we just have to be careful about what they can do when we try to understand the world."
The second part of the exhibit displays statistical data, graphs and anecdotal videos about racism in Canada.
This section shows how discrimination happens across various sectors, such as in education, justice, health care and the workplace.
It also displays a large graph that depicts racially motivated hate crime, based on Statistics Canada data.
In the final section, visitors get some tips to identify bias and navigate through it. It also gives them some time to reflect.
After finishing a meditation activity in the last section, Poirier advises everybody to "take a moment and think about it, before you react."
Auffrey said the intent is to make people aware that "race and racism is a social construct and we can deconstruct it."
The exhibition is open to the public and will remain at the Resurgo Place museum until Jan. 5.
Walter Stoddard, a researcher at the Ontario Science Centre, said racism is a topic of pain and his team wanted to create an experience where people could feel safe.
"You go through with your own understanding and you take from it your own learning, a very individual experience," he said.
"But at the same time, we hope generally that there is this understanding that you ultimately can take conscious control of your decision-making, you can make better decisions."
The research and design work on the project began in 2019 and the exhibit was made public in February of 2022, confirmed the Ontario Science Centre in an email.
Stoddard said since then it has been traveling across the country.
"The antidote to thoughtlessness is mindfulness, and so if we can be more mindful, more attentive to the decision-making process we make, well, we will be better in all things that we did," he said.
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