We all have implicit bias. MESS Hall exhibit will help you learn from it.

The Pensacola MESS Hall is hosting a community engagement exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution Exhibition Service to raise awareness about the social science and psychology of implicit bias, its impact and what people can do about it.

Staff at the MESS Hall team are excited to finally be able to host ‘The Bias Inside Us’ exhibit after applying for it before the COVID-19 pandemic began. They've been granted its use for one month, said Executive Director Megan Pratt.

The MESS Hall, located at 418 E. Wright St., has been in Pensacola since 2012 and provides visitors with a space focused on learning STEM and similar subjects.

Staff members took a trip last summer to learn how to do the exhibit, and Pratt hope the experience will help visitors connect science to society and gain a new understanding on how our brains work along the way.

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"This exhibit is really about who we are and how we're thinking about our society," she said. "This is a part of community dialogue. It's important to get people talking about it."

The traveling exhibit's grand opening was on Saturday and it will be available through Aug. 15.

The exhibit features six sections: Introduction, The Science of Bias, Bias in Real Life, Serious Consequences, Bias is All Around Us, #RetrainYourBrain and Personal Reflection. These sections will help visitors explore the foundational blocks of bias, the psychology of how it forms and how it influences behavior both consciously and unconsciously.

“Bias is part of being human,” said Myriam Springuel, director of Smithsonian Institution Exhibition Service and Smithsonian Affiliations. “Our goal through ‘The Bias Inside Us’ is to help individuals understand and counter their implicit bias and help communities thrive through conversation and greater understanding."

Pratt noted, "This exhibit is not (saying) 'you are bad because you have biases,' it's really helping people understand their biases. Things like 'you guys' and 'guys let's go' can even play a role, we're actively trying to change our vocabulary every day to be better."

The exhibit draws from the scientific research by psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji of Harvard University and Anthony G. Greenwald, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, whose collaborative efforts have led to the creation of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in 1998. The IAT is viewed by the Association for Psychological Science as a pioneer assessment tool that changed the way we understand and measure unconscious attitudes.

Their book, "Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People," explores the biases people carry based on their exposure to cultural attitudes on areas such as gender, race, social class and disability status.

The exhibit will also feature the Humanae project by Spanish photographer Angélica Dass, which has collected over 4,000 images across 20 different countries. The project aims to illustrate humanity's "true colors" opposed to the untrue labels of "white," "black," "red" and "yellow" typically associated with the concept of race by using pixels on its subjects' noses.

Dr. Kristen "Brent" Venable, professor of computer science and director of the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Program at the University of West Florida and Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, will be lecturing about bias in artificial intelligence on Aug. 8 to help "broaden the discussion." Pre-registration is required to attend the event and is available on the MESS Hall's website at pensacolamesshall.org.

Sunday's Child, a local organization celebrating nearly a decade of trying to create culture and community for LGBTQ+ individuals in the Pensacola Bay area, is supporting the Pensacola MESS Hall in the creation of their new outreach program: 'Where does it fit?,' which continues the conversation and awareness created by the Smithsonian's exhibit.

The program is designed to engage elementary students with topics like perception, patterns, perspective and more. It will be provided free of charge to 10 summer camps and will include presentations at libraries and other venues.

Sunday’s Child is also paying for staff to hold special hours for visits to the MESS hall's exhibit for select organizations in order to make access to the community conversation about bias more available.

“Within our mission of Sunday's Child are the words ‘promote equality and inspire inclusion’ and that is exactly what ‘The Bias Inside Us’ is offering our community,” said Jacey Cosentino, president of the board for Sunday’s Child. "I feel if we can utilize education like the MESS Hall is providing to better understand human nature then we can have the tools to help everyone feel they are welcomed and included.”

Pratt hopes that the initial conversation created by this exhibit will cause a ripple effect throughout the community and promote more understanding.

For more information visit pensacolamesshall.org/the-bias-inside-us/.

Have any questions on construction or other developments? Please send an email to ebunch@pnj.com to have it potentially looked into.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola MESS Hall bringing Smithsonian exhibit The Bias Inside Us