Prejudice and Bias
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- 17 May 2018
- Sharpening Your Skills
You Probably Have a Bias for Making Bad Decisions. Here's Why.
Cognitive biases cloud our decision making like a San Francisco fog in the brain. Here is recent research on psychological factors that fool us into hiring bad employees, favoring one gender or race over another, or giving more weight to the last information we've received. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Apr 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Is Overconfidence a Motivated Bias? Experimental Evidence
People are most at risk of making overly positive self-assessments when their assessment criteria are not clearly defined. Yet, even within ambiguous domains, providing clearly defined criteria for what makes a productive employee, an effective leader, and an efficient team, may help people better calibrate their self-perceptions with reality.
- 22 Jan 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender
Gender discrimination in a typically male workplace is not necessarily driven by misogyny. Rather, employers are less willing to hire applicants associated with a lower performing group-even if that group is defined by a demographic characteristic other than gender.
- 14 Dec 2016
- Book
Simple Ways to Take Gender Bias Out of Your Job Ads
Iris Bohnet's new book, What Works: Gender Equality by Design, discusses how organizations can leverage findings from behavioral science research to fight gender bias in the workplace—starting with job listings. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 17 Nov 2016
- Op-Ed
What's Behind the Unexpected Trump Support from Women
Why did Donald Trump’s candidacy appeal to so many women voters? Laura Morgan Roberts and Robin Ely say women from varying backgrounds cast their ballots for a number of reasons related to gender, economics, and perceptions of leadership. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 03 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Ideological Segregation among Online Collaborators: Evidence from Wikipedians
This study analyzes the dynamics supporting or undermining segregated conversations. Among the findings: In spite of their great differences, contributors on Wikipedia tend to move toward less segregated conversations. Contributors’ positions become more neutral over time, not more extreme. In addition, the conflict resolution mechanisms and the mix of informal and formal norms at Wikipedia play an important role in encouraging a community that works toward a neutral point of view.
- 20 Jul 2016
- Research & Ideas
Airplane Design Brings Out the Class Warfare in Us All
Air rage is often blamed on overcrowded flights and postage stamp-size seats, but researchers Michael Norton and Katherine A. DeCelles find another culprit: resentment toward passengers in first class. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Jan 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Online platforms such as Airbnb create new markets by eliminating search frictions, building trust, and facilitating transactions. With the rise of the sharing economy, however, comes the prospect of racial discrimination that is unheard of in established platforms. The authors suggest changes to Airbnb’s site design to reduce or prevent discrimination.
- 30 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Political Polarization: Why We All Just Can't Get Along
Dylan Minor's new research explains how political polarization works and why we have lost the ability to compromise. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 19 Jan 2015
- Research & Ideas
Is Wikipedia More Biased Than Encyclopædia Britannica?
By identifying politically biased language in Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia, Feng Zhu hopes to learn whether professional editors or open-sourced experts provide the most objective entries. Open for comment; 16 Comment(s) posted.
- 30 Apr 2014
- Research & Ideas
Venture Investors Prefer Funding Handsome Men
Studies by Alison Wood Brooks and colleagues reveal that investors prefer pitches from male entrepreneurs over those from female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitches is identical. And handsome men fare best of all. Open for comment; 13 Comment(s) posted.
- 09 Dec 2013
- Research & Ideas
Cultural Disharmony Undermines Workplace Creativity
Managing cultural friction not only creates a more harmonious workplace, says professor Roy Y.J. Chua, but ensures that you reap the creative benefits of multiculturalism at its best. Closed for comment; 13 Comment(s) posted.
- 07 Aug 2013
- What Do You Think?
Is There Still a Role for Judgment in Decision-Making?
Summing Up: Human judgment should be a part of all decisions, but play a dominant role in significantly fewer of them, according to many of Jim Heskett's readers. Is good old-fashioned intuition out of date? What do YOU think? Closed for comment; 47 Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Jul 2013
- Research & Ideas
Why Unqualified Candidates Get Hired Anyway
Why do businesses evaluate candidates solely on past job performance, failing to consider the job's difficulty? Why do university admissions officers focus on high GPAs, discounting influence of easy grading standards? Francesca Gino and colleagues investigate the phenomenon of the "fundamental attribution error." Closed for comment; 24 Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Jun 2012
- Research & Ideas
Collaborating Across Cultures
Learning to collaborate creatively with people from other cultures is a vital skill in today's business environment, says professor Roy Y.J. Chua, whose research focuses on a key measure psychologists have dubbed "cultural metacognition." Closed for comment; 24 Comment(s) posted.
- 18 Jun 2012
- Research & Ideas
Better by the Bunch: Evaluating Job Candidates in Groups
The key to avoiding gender stereotyping in the hiring process lies in evaluating job candidates as a group, rather than one at a time. So says new research by Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen, and Max H. Bazerman. Open for comment; 6 Comment(s) posted.
- 21 Feb 2012
- Research & Ideas
Leadership Program for Women Targets Subtle Promotion Biases
Despite more women in the corporate work force, they still are underrepresented in executive officer positions. Professor Robin Ely and colleagues propose a new way to think about developing women for leadership. Closed for comment; 12 Comment(s) posted.
- 24 Sep 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
“I read Playboy for the articles”: Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences
We want others to find us good, fair, responsible and logical; and we place even more importance on thinking of ourselves this way. Therefore, when people behave in ways that might appear selfish, prejudiced, or perverted, they tend to engage a host of strategies designed to justify questionable behavior with rational excuses: "I hired my son because he's more qualified." "I promoted Ashley because she does a better job than Aisha." Or, "I read Playboy for the articles." In this chapter from a forthcoming book, HBS doctoral student ZoĂ« Chance and professor Michael I. Norton describe various means of coping with one's own questionable behavior: through preemptive actions and concurrent strategies for re-framing uncomfortable situations, forgoing decisions, and forgetting those decisions altogether. Key concepts include: Because people do not want to be perceived as (or feel) unethical or immoral, they make excuses for their shameful behavior—even to themselves. People cope with their own questionable actions in a number of ways, from forgoing certain experiences to rationalizing, justifying, and forgetting—a remarkable range of strategies allowing them to maintain a clear conscience even under dubious circumstances. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 10 Sep 2001
- Research & Ideas
The Negotiator’s Secret: More Than Merely Effective
What turns merely effective negotiators into all-out expert negotiators? The ability to overcome six common mistakes, according to HBS professor James K. Sebenius. In this excerpt from the Harvard Business Review, he describes one of the most glaring. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration
Investigating the economic and political effects of immigration across US cities between 1910 and 1930, this paper finds that political opposition to immigration can arise even when immigrants bring widespread economic benefits. The paper provides evidence that cultural differences between immigrants and natives were responsible, at least in part, for natives’ anti-immigration reactions.