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Individual Course

Make Better Decisions: The Psychology of Blind Spots for Leaders and Teams

Course Length

3 weeks

1–2 hours per week

Featuring faculty from:

Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences LogoHarvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Certificate Price:

$ 550

Enroll by Jul 16, 2026

Enroll Now

Certificate Price:

$ 550

Enroll by Jul 16, 2026

Enroll Now

Do we really understand what goes into our decision-making process at the office and at home?

The last fifty years of research in experimental psychology has shown that we may not understand our minds as well as we think we do; however, we can reveal a world of hidden thoughts that shape our decisions.

Developed and taught by Harvard Professor Mahzarin Banaji, this course begins with the premise that all human minds contain blind spots due to hidden bias. The first step to recognizing the impact of bias and making better decisions at work is a willingness to examine your own thoughts and behaviors with scientific curiosity.

With Professor Banaji as your guide, you will hear from industry leaders on how unintended bias seeps into the daily work of organizations and how they developed practices to detect and challenge this bias in the workplace. You will practice proven strategies to avoid common pitfalls and gain valuable resources that will help you outsmart hidden bias at work, including the ways bias can quietly show up not only in people, but in the technologies organizations increasingly rely on, like AI models. Engaging exercises will often surprise you and reveal how your perception doesn’t align with objective reality. With reflective questions, you will begin to draw your own conclusions about the unintended impact of hidden bias and why it may impede your effectiveness as a member of your organization.

In this interactive course, you will experience the way your mind works, how it influences your decisions, and how you can outsmart it to overcome bias.

Self-Guided

Harvard Online

Industries:

  • Consulting
  • Financial Services
  • Technology
  • Health Care
  • Kimberly C.
  • Sergio Q.
  • Leticia C.

Global Learning Community

  • Learn from real case studies
  • Do it on your own time
  • Get a certificate, add it to your resume
  • Be part of the Harvard Community
Data Science for Business values

Syllabus

Designed for individuals and teams in any organization, this Harvard Online course, taught by preeminent Harvard Professor Mahzarin Banaji, explores the science underlying hidden bias to allow better decisions in life and at work.

Download Full Syllabus

Faculty

Industry Experts

Your Instructor

Mahzarin Banaji

Mahzarin Banaji , PhD, is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Professor Banaji is an experimental psychologist who co-developed the concept of “implicit bias” nearly 30 years ago and co-authored the New York Times best-selling book Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. She is the recipient of seven honorary degrees, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Golden Goose Award from the United States Congress, the Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice, and the Atkinson Prize from the National Academy of Sciences. Her lifetime contributions have been recognized by APA’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution, and APS’s William James Fellow Award for “a lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology”, the Cattell Fellow Award for “a lifetime of applied psychological research” and the Mentor Award. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Industry Expert

Shelly McNamara

Chief Equality and Inclusion Officer, Procter and Gamble

Learn from Shelly's experience as Chief Equality and Inclusion Officer at Procter and Gamble and how she has improved business outcomes through addressing bias in the workplace.

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

Industry Expert

Robert Lowe

Chief of Police, Boston University

Boston University Chief of Police Robert Lowe shares how awareness of implicit biases has changed his office's approach to their work.

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

Industry Expert

Mike Fenlon

Former Chief People Officer, PwC

PwC's former Chief People Officer and Chief Future of Work Officer, shares how he worked with colleagues through his entire career to detect and outsmart blindspots in academia and in workplaces.

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

I have walked away with a transformative learning experience that will positively impact my professional work to move employers towards more inclusive hiring practices for immigrant and refugee talent and how I show up as a manager of my team.

Kimberly C.

Director of Employer Engagement

This course has completely changed my thinking. It has taught me that our decision-making process can always improve by identifying information that was previously considered irrelevant, as well as recognizing biases that we have ingrained since conception. Now, any decision I make will be more analytical and objective, both in my workplace and in my personal life.

Sergio Q.

The content was truly engaging and presented in a very dynamic way. It created a positive impact on me since it made me reflect thoroughly about how I navigate myself at work, since my day-to-day involves interactions with a very multicultural community.

Leticia C.

I would recommend the course of Outsmarting Implicit Bias to each of my family friend, professional and social colleagues to take up this role as it provides a key to open the lock of how our Minds work. In our day to day jobs, we somehow neglect to realize the impact of Pause and Rational Data based decisions. We somehow fail to realize the impact of the loss that we can incur due to our Intuitive decision making without understanding the impact of biases. IAT certainly came in as an Eye Opener for me and can help everyone in their journey to realize, accept and acknowledge first about their possible Implicit biases.

Nachiket D.

This course had a strong impact on me because everything I considered to be correct, I now have to reconsider and reshape my critical thinking, as well as the biases that were instilled in us throughout our lives. [...] I am currently working in an area related to human resources, and I must not have biases only seek objectivity for the development of my functions.

Sergio A. G. Q.

Secretariat of Public Education

This validation from Harvard Online was both empowering and motivating. It reinforced my confidence, affirmed the importance of the problem I’m tackling, and encouraged me to continue advocating for more inclusive talent practices for women.

Katerina C.

Facilitator and Impact Strategist

Lilian

This course significantly advanced my goals of developing deeper self awareness and improving the fairness and quality of my decision making. It provided a scientific framework to understand implicit bias, not just at the individual level but within institutional systems. As someone working in high stakes clinical and academic environments, I now approach decisions with greater intentionality, pause more deliberately before high impact judgments, and think more structurally about how to design fairer processes.

Farhin H.

PhD Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine

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Past Participant Discounts

Learners who have enrolled in at least one qualifying Harvard Online program receive a 30% discount on this course. Select Past Participant Discounts are automatically applied to the Program Fee upon time of payment.

Learners who have earned a verified certificate for a HarvardX course hosted on the edX platform are eligible to receive a 30% discount on this course using a discount code. Discounts are not available after you've submitted payment, so if you think you are eligible for a discount on a registration, please check your email for a code or contact us.

Nonprofit, Government, Military, and Education Discounts

Eligibility is determined by a prospective learner’s email address, ending in .org, .gov, .mil, or .edu. Interested learners can apply below for the discount and, if eligible, will receive a promo code to enter when completing payment information to enroll in a Harvard Online program.

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FAQs

We offer 30% discounts to past participants of select Harvard Online courses. We also offer discounts on select courses to learners who work in nonprofits, government, military, or education, or are U.S. veterans. You can find more information about current discounts and eligibility on our course policies and discounts page.

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Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, you can list it on your resume along with the date of completion as follows:

Harvard Online

Certificate in Make Better Decisions: The Psychology of Blind Spots for Leaders and Teams

[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" as follows:

School: Harvard Online

Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]

Degree: Other; Certificate in Certificate in Make Better Decisions: The Psychology of Blind Spots for Leaders and Teams

Field of Study: [Leave blank]

Grade: Complete

Activities and Societies: [Leave blank]

For the program description on LinkedIn, please use the following:

Make Better Decisions: The Psychology of Blind Spots for Leaders and Teams is a course that teaches the science behind hidden bias and strategies for countering its impact in the workplace.

You are expected to complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely way. This includes completing the modules and fully answering the questions in each module between the course start and end dates so that the cohort can move through the course at a similar pace and benefit from social learning opportunities. ⁠In addition to completing modules and assignments, you are expected to provide feedback on other learners’ reflections and contribute to discussions on the platform.

⁠You can set your own daily or weekly routine and adjust it as needed, but to receive your certificate you must complete all modules and assignments by the stated course end date. Learners who do not complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course. No letter grades are assigned for this course; your participation is evaluated on a complete or incomplete basis.

For detailed information about technology and bandwidth requirements, please see our full Harvard Online FAQs.

There is no application required for this course. You can enroll directly through Harvard Online if you are at least 18 years old, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.

Make Better Decisions: The Psychology of Blind Spots for Leaders and Teams is an introductory‑level course that teaches science‑backed strategies for recognizing and countering the impact of bias and psychological blind spots in the workplace. No specific background in psychology is required. The course is particularly well‑suited for leaders, managers, and team members across industries who make or influence decisions and want to improve the quality and fairness of those decisions.

Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a digital Certificate of Completion from Harvard Online. Our team reviews all participant coursework after the final deadline in your course, and, once eligibility is confirmed, your Certified Electronic Credential will be delivered to your email address.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

At the end of the course, you will be able to download a PDF summary highlighting key concepts that were introduced throughout the course. We hope this summary document will serve as a helpful resource after you finish the course.

The course previously titled Outsmarting Implicit Bias is now called Make Better Decisions: The Psychology of Blind Spots for Leaders and Teams. This updated title reflects a broader course focus on recognizing and addressing psychological blind spots to support effective decision-making for leaders and teams in any organizational setting.

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