
The question that comes to my mind is, is there any point in asking, anyway? Can Sotomayor, or anyone, really tell us how her identity biases her judgment? Do we know our own biases and prejudices?

The question that comes to my mind is, is there any point in asking, anyway? Can Sotomayor, or anyone, really tell us how her identity biases her judgment? Do we know our own biases and prejudices?
Certainly some of us do. We may happily endorse prejudiced views about certain groups, or reluctantly admit that we hold prejudices of which we're not proud. But for many kinds of biases, research suggests that we're not very good at knowing we have them, or how strong they are.

According to the findings, implicit biases are quite common and robust (many people show larger differences in their implicit associations with elderly vs. young people, for example). In addition, these biases are present even in people who honestly believe they have no bias or prejudice towards that group. Most importantly, these biases are not harmless. Research shows that they predict subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) acts of discrimination, such as being less friendly or warm towards a person, or evaluating their work more harshly.

How to handle difficult people.