A recent study by the Social Action and Innovation Centre (KMOP) reveals that two-thirds of Greeks subconsciously associate men with professional careers and women with family life. The study surveyed 1,145 individuals aged 18 to 70 across diverse demographics, 55% of whom were women.

To measure this association, the study utilized the Implicit Association Test, a Harvard-developed method that measures split-second reaction times to reveal how quickly the brain connects certain concepts.

The KMOP study found that 42% of participants who explicitly stated they do not associate gender with specific roles still exhibited unconscious stereotypes during testing.

KMOP lead researcher Giannis Pappas explains that this discrepancy is not a sign of inconsistent beliefs or hypocrisy. Rather, it illustrates how the human brain relies on shortcuts based on internalized social norms to process information.

Remarkably, individual demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and education level account for merely 2.5% of the variance in these unconscious biases. The remaining 97.5% is driven by overarching social and cultural factors, proving that these biases run horizontally across all societal groups.

This unconscious bias starkly contrasts with conscious, personal ambitions highlighted by KMOP, where 76% of female participants consider their career to be “very” or “extremely” important, compared to only 56% of men.

This highlights the coexistence of two levels of thought – our conscious, declared beliefs and our automatic cognitive mechanisms which can be biased.