The BASK publishes a specific list of barriers to an inclusive workplace involving conscious and unconscious bias. Items reward recognizing the named terms and rejecting general cognitive biases that sound plausible but are not on the list.
The named barriers
Gender-based discrimination, racism including systemic racism, stereotypes, ageism, ableism, ingroup/outgroup bias, sexual orientation bias, social comparison bias, extroversion/introversion bias, neurodiversity bias, microaggressions, imposter syndrome, identity covering, and cultural taxation.
Not on the list: confirmation bias, anchoring bias, and sunk-cost bias. These are general cognitive and economic reasoning errors, and they are the standard distractors.
The four that get confused
- Imposter syndrome — persistent self-doubt about one's own competence despite evidence of success. Internal.
- Cultural taxation — the disproportionate extra demands placed on employees from underrepresented groups to represent and advance diversity work. External workload.
- Identity covering — an employee downplaying a known aspect of their own identity to fit the dominant workplace culture. Something the employee does.
- Microaggression — a brief, often unintentional comment that communicates a demeaning message about someone's group. Something said to the employee.
Reading the scenarios
- A strong performer convinced her promotion was a mistake and that colleagues will find her out: imposter syndrome.
- The only two Black managers in a 400-person division asked to run the ERG, sit on recruiting panels, and advise on every inclusion initiative on top of their jobs: cultural taxation.
- "Your English is so good, where are you really from?": a microaggression. Systemic racism is also named, but it denotes structural patterns embedded in systems, not a single interpersonal remark.
- A hiring manager rating quieter candidates lower on "leadership presence" despite the strongest work samples: extroversion/introversion bias, favoring one interaction style over another. Not social comparison bias, which is about competitive comparison between people.
Sort by direction: self-doubt, extra load, self-muting, or a remark aimed at someone.