Live respect – E-Learning tutorials

The E-Learning tutorial is intended for all ETH members – professors, lecturers and students, as well as scientific and administrative and technical staff. It takes around 60 minutes to complete. So it’s not something you can nip through quickly “in a gap between two meetings”. Such an important topic demands our full attention, as President Joël Mesot emphasises: “This E-Learning tutorial is an essential component of our culture of mutual respect at ETH Zurich. I therefore urge all members of the ETH community to take the necessary time to complete the course. It’s an investment that pays dividends.”

Taking a stand, reporting grievances and standing up for yourself and others is often difficult, especially in cases of sexual harassment: “Unfortunately, sexual harassment is still a taboo subject. With this e-​learning module, we want to raise awareness within our community and support individuals in not only identifying sexual harassment, but above all in being able to speak out when they are affected by or witness such behaviour,” explains Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership. After all, it is only when we begin talking about sexual harassment that we are able to help those affected and create an environment that supports active intervention.

“The e-​learning module provides a helpful, in-​depth insight into the topic and every ETH member can learn from it,” says Julia Dannath, adding that after completing the training, people will have a better sense of where sexual harassment begins. “We often hear the question, ‘Are you not even allowed to make a joke or flirt anymore?’. Of course we can have a laugh at our place of work or study, and show others our affection. However, this behaviour becomes unacceptable when doing so violates another person's dignity and boundaries.”

This phenomenon is when we tend to make judgements based on stereotypes and beliefs that we hold but are not conscious of. These prejudices are shaped by our personal background, our environment and our personal experiences.

Such simplifications make sense in everyday life: we have to make thousands of instant decisions on a daily basis. To thoroughly reflect on each one of them would be overwhelming. Unconscious processes such as routines or “gut feelings” therefore dictate much of our decision-​making. That comes at a price: we don’t always find the best solution, and we have to live with bad decisions.

Unconscious bias can have damaging consequences:

These include inappropriate remarks that perhaps were not meant to be malicious, but still hurt another person’s feelings. Examples might be comments such as: “It’s great you want to study physics, even though you’re a woman!”, or “But where do you come from originally?” to a person of colour.

Unconscious bias can also lead to discrimination or prevent diversity. For example, when we exclude people because we believe they lack certain qualities (stereotypes) or prefer people who are similar to us (similarity bias).

It’s often the case that unconventional solutions are disregarded – even though on closer inspection they may have been better than the traditional approach.

We all have unconscious bias to some extent – it’s impossible to eradicate it entirely. But we can learn mechanisms for how and when we should be aware of this, and actively counter it:

1. We should be aware that we all have unconscious bias. Only once we realise that our thoughts and behaviour are also affected by this bias will be able to do something about it.
2. We need to consciously take time in situations where we have to make judgements about people (in recruitment processes, for example) or need to assess performance (examinations, for example). In such cases it’s worth being self-​critical, by questioning the initial spontaneous impressions that spring to mind.

Thinking in stereotypes

Discrimination is often based on stereotypes. external page Test yourself to see how much the way you think is influenced by stereotypes.