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Unmasking our true selves

Are you unbiased? Treat all people equally? A fair leader? A team player? You might be surprised.

Cryss Brunner, associate professor of educational policy and administration, has created an innovative communication method that gives students an unprecedented view of how their perceptions of their own power and character can differ from the way they present themselves. Ultimately Brunner wants to know if our identity (gender, race, physical characteristics, experiences) gets in the way of interpersonal understanding, true dialogue, and “justice-oriented” interaction.

“Identity shapes both our actual communication and our perception of communication in ways that create obstacles to equitable practices and experiences for all learners and communities,” Brunner explains. “Identity and the power associated with it can drown out alternative voices or marginalize all but mainstream authority, which contributes to inequity and diminished social justice.” Often leaders who practice this kind of autocratic interaction are unaware of imposing their power on others, Brunner says.

Brunner has spent the last decade studying women leaders and power within school administration. In 2002 she partnered with the Digital Media Center at the University of Minnesota to create Experiential Simulations (ES), an online environment similar to a chat room where participants’ true identities are masked to others in the group. Each participant is given a “modified persona”—an assigned gender, racial, class, and positional identity unlike their own. They are instructed to refrain from revealing personal details to one another. When participants log in, each sees his or her own image, while their classmates see images and video that represent the assigned persona. The participants are unaware of this, however, and assume that the others are seeing them as they actually are.

In this context, students work together in situations that illustrate how their perception of others’ identities shapes their own participation in decision making. Offline, the students answer reflective questions concerning their assumptions about power and stereotypes, their communication, and their decision-making practices. The ES experience brings to the foreground what is usually in the background of real-world interaction: who each student is in relation to their membership in privileged or marginalized groups, the assumptions about those groups, and the characteristics that bias their interactions.

What the research shows

The reactions from students in the project have been visceral and profound. One woman who thought that people didn’t listen to her because she is African American realized that her own communication approach was preventing her from being heard. Several participants were startled to learn that their behavior was often bigoted. Others who thought they were inclusive discovered they were bullies. Several continue to report that they draw on the ES experience “every day” as they communicate, listen, and lead.

For another group of students, the exercise was a great equalizer. Speakers of languages other than English reported that they had never before been able to participate in class discussions in such a meaningful way, an experience that was echoed by students who categorize themselves as shy and by those with physical disabilities.

The Experiential Simulations process has been patented and copyrighted. Brunner and colleagues are in the process of refining the ES model as software that can be used as a leadership development tool.

What others say about this research

Michael Miller, assistant professor of teacher education at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, sees promise for Brunner’s work in fostering interpersonal understanding. “One powerful use might be an Experiential Simulation in which you modify the personas of inner-city students to become stereotypically suburban students and suburban students with stereotypically inner-city identities and have them collaborate on a task,” Miller says. “This would provide students a powerful look at how they think differs from how they act and an opening for meaningful discussions about perceptions of the ‘other.’

“In the past few years, social networking via online vehicles such as MySpace and Friendster have illustrated very real components of social influence generally, and power and identity specifically,” Miller continues. "Brunner’s work on power and identity through experiential simulations may prove to have farther reaching implications given the way human communication continues to so rapidly morph."

Christen Opsal, a graduate student in educational policy and administration, notes, “As a participant, I found the experience tremendously unsettling, unprecedentedly liberating, and undeniably enlightening.

“Of the many possible applications,” she continues, “I see value in using Experiential Simulations during a hiring process, as a way to identify candidates who are truly competent and collaborative, and also as a way to reduce bias in selection processes.”

Why this research matters

Experiential Simulations give participants a rare opportunity to take a hard look at their behavior and to experience a walk in someone else’s shoes. The process also allows them an opportunity for meaningful reflection about how their self-image may differ from how they present themselves.

On a broader scale, the technology could have application in any situation where people work together in groups—from schools, to communities, to businesses, to government. “Consider what the United Nations might be able to accomplish if participants were stripped of the power associated with the countries they represent,” says Brunner. “Would the world be a more just place if decisions were made from such a level playing field?”

For more information
Cryss Brunner, 612-624-8527, brunner@umn.edu 

January 2007