Break Your Bias is a novel web experience designed to help users start to dismantle and unlearn their internalized biases. Created in collaboration with the Minnesota’s YMCA of the North and its social equity and education arm, Break Your Bias engages users with a series of learning modules that challenge a user’s preconceived notions and unconsciously held beliefs.

The interdisciplinary team launched the project in Minneapolis in the year following intense racial tensions in the city and country in order to encourage people to dismantle their internal biases by challenging their mental models. Through virtual learning experiences that address and shatter people’s preconceived notions we were able to achieve this while also driving deeper users toward resources offered from the YMCA of the North’s Equity Innovation Center, which focuses on providing solutions to disrupt long-standing social inequities and advance system changes through educational experiences.

The experience takes participants through a series of provocative questions before they are prompted to dive deeper into videos and actions that can be taken regardless of time – 1-minute, 5-minutes, or 10-minutes. The resources include everything from recommendations for bias-breaking books, podcasts, and films to tips for having courageous conversations and thought-provoking videos of some of the 12 diverse and brave Minnesotans who put themselves into this project.

While the ultimate goal is that site visitors can identify their own biases and then take a first step to break them, the site also provided increased awareness of the YMCA of the North’s Equity Innovation Center and all the important, impactful work they do. From this project we were also able to connect Minnesota leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion with the YMCA’s audience.