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Poker Face
Social awareness exercise to explore bias & inclusion.
- Simple, yet powerful
- Fosters communication
- Multiple metaphors
- Focus on cultural norms
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Social Awareness Exercise
This trust-building game reveals unconscious bias and social hierarchies based on non-verbal perceptions. People experience firsthand how others treat them differently based on external markers, creating powerful insights about inclusion, privilege, and social dynamics. Poker Face is a powerful social awareness exercise that demonstrates how assumptions influence behaviour whilst building empathy for marginalised experiences.
Step-by-Step Instructions
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Original post January 2018, last updated October 2025.
Comments (6)
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These reflection questions are great- thank you and well done!
So glad they are useful for you Dan. We try not to be too prescriptive about these questions, but when in the hands of a great facilitator (like yourself) I think they are super useful.
simple labelling game. good for communication game but not teambuilding, I can see.
Make sure you play this game away from windows and other reflective surfaces.
Excellent piece of advice Paul, thanks for noting this potential hazard.
We used this activity with teachers to talk about the labels we sometimes put on students. It was related then to empathy and how we treat each student. Excellent activity!