The Fair Play Project: An Intervention to Reduce Racial Bias in the Academy
WCER Working Paper No. 2026-1
Christine M. Pribbenow and Carissa Brown
July 2026, 20 pp.
ABSTRACT: Fair Play is the cornerstone of workshops that were developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to teach STEMM faculty about the concept of implicit (or unconscious) bias and to teach them strategies to reduce bias within their behaviors and the environment. Fair Play is a computer-based simulation that allows the player to “walk in the shoes” of the primary character, Jamal, a STEMM graduate student on a university campus who encounters verbal and environmental microaggressions that represent racial implicit bias. Workshops were implemented for STEMM faculty and staff at colleges, universities, and conferences across the country from 2016 to 2019. A research study was conducted to follow up with participants to understand what they learned from these trainings and how they applied their skills and knowledge in their professional and personal settings. Study results suggest they increased their awareness of bias and their ability to define concepts (bias literacy); they were able to take Jamal’s perspective; their attitudes and behaviors changed; and they were able to apply bias-reducing strategies in their professional settings. These positive findings, as well as the experiences of the facilitators, suggested the need to develop a similar training for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists that added in additional topics to encourage persistence and for learning about the history of race as a concept in the United States. Funding from both projects supported development of open and accessible training materials and the video game for facilitators to implement in workshops at their home institutions and organizations.
keywords: implicit bias, STEM interventions, professional development, simulated learning
