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Prejudice and BiasRemove Prejudice and Bias →

New research on prejudice and bias from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including racial discrimination in the sharing economy, politically biased language in Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia, and why investors prefer pitches from male entrepreneurs over those from female entrepreneurs.
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Steps to Help You Get Out of Your Own Way

by Sean Silverthorne

These research-based tips will help you slow down, fight the fog, and improve both your home life and work life. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

When Do Experts Listen to Other Experts? The Role of Negative Information in Expert Evaluations for Novel Projects

by Jacqueline N. Lane, Misha Teplitskiy, Gary Gray, Hardeep Ranu, Michael Menietti, Eva C. Guinan, and Karim R. Lakhani

Evaluators of early-stage scientific proposals tend to systematically focus on the weaknesses of proposed work rather than its strengths, according to evidence from two field experiments.

Discrimination, Disenfranchisement and African American WWII Military Enlistment

by Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini

The United States entered World War II during one of the worst periods of racial discrimination in post-Civil War history. This paper examines the social costs of this discrimination, with clear implications for policymakers: Requiring equal contributions from citizens means treating citizens equally.

Racism and Digital Design: How Online Platforms Can Thwart Discrimination

by Kristen Senz

Poor design decisions contribute to racial discrimination on many online platforms. Michael Luca and colleagues offer tips for reducing the risk, used by Airbnb and other companies. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Starbucks Commits to Raising Awareness of Racial Bias

Re: Francesca GinoRe: Katherine B. Coffman

After a highly publicized act of racial discrimination by a Starbucks employee the company revised store policies and employee training practices. Francesca Gino and Katherine Coffman discuss unconscious bias in corporate culture. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Pursuit of Passion Propagates Privilege

by Josephine Tan and Jon M. Jachimowicz

While graduating students are often exhorted to do work they love to do, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to feel that they are a fit for and have the skills to thrive in a job that calls for passion.

Is a Business School-Industry Collaboration Needed to Attract Black Talent to Campus?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP:James Heskett's readers suggest that recruiting minority students to business school must be matched with programs to retain them. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Changing In-group Boundaries: The Role of New Immigrant Waves in the US

by Vasiliki Fouka, Shom Mazumder, and Marco Tabellini

How do new immigrants affect natives’ views of other minority groups? This work studies the evolution of group boundaries in the United States and indicates that whites living in states receiving more Mexican immigrants recategorize blacks as in-group members, because of the inflow of a new, “affectively” more distant group.

Novel Risks

by Robert S. Kaplan, Dutch Leonard, and Anette Mikes

Companies can manage known risks by reducing their likelihood and impact. But such routine risk management often prevents them from recognizing and responding rapidly to novel risks, those not envisioned or seen before. Setting up teams, processes, and capabilities in advance for dealing with unexpected circumstances can protect against their severe consequences.

Why Backstage Capital Invests in ‘Underestimated’ Entrepreneurs

Re: Laura Huang

Laura Huang discusses VC Arlan Hamilton’s strategy of backing entrepreneurs who have been ignored because of stereotypes, biases, and preconceptions. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

'I Know Why You Voted for Trump' and Other Motivation Misperceptions

by Dina Gerdeman

We often make knee-jerk assumptions about what motivates other people’s choices, a bad habit both in the political and business worlds. Kate Barasz explains what we can do about it. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Has the Glass Ceiling Been Broken (or at Least Cracked)?

by Sean Silverthorne

Harvard Business School researchers have been at the forefront of studies on gender discrimination for several decades. As International Women's Day 2019 approaches, here is what they've discovered so far. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Revision Bias

by Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie John, Ed O’Brien, and Michael I. Norton

Companies often release revised editions of books, director’s cuts of movies, and technological updates, on the assumption that revising products and services leads to better outcomes. Nine studies, however, document the revision bias: the tendency to prefer things that were revised, regardless of whether the revised versions are objectively better than their predecessors.

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

by Dina Gerdeman

Researchers believe gender stereotypes hold women back in the workplace. Katherine Coffman's research adds a new twist: They can even cause women to question their own abilities. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Stereotypes and Belief Updating

by Katherine B. Coffman, Manuela Collis, and Leena Kulkarni

Increasing evidence demonstrates that stereotyped beliefs drive key economic decisions. This paper shows the significant role of self-stereotyping in predicting beliefs about one’s own ability. Stereotypes do not just affect beliefs about ability when information is scarce. In fact, stereotypes color the way information is incorporated into beliefs, perpetuating initial biases.

The Better Way to Forecast the Future

by Roberta Holland

We can forecast hurricane paths with great certainty, yet many businesses can't predict a supply chain snafu just around the corner. Yael Grushka-Cockayne says crowdsourcing can help. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men

by Michael Blanding

Women caught in misconduct were 20 percent more likely to be fired and 30 percent less likely to find new employment in the financial services industry, reports new research by Mark Egan and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct

by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos, and Amit Seru

Despite committing misconduct less often and less severely than men, female advisers in the financial adviser industry face more severe punishment in the labor market, a finding strongly correlated with the gender composition of the managerial team. A similar punishment gap and mitigating factors affect ethnic minority men.

Pro Basketball Coaches Display Racial Bias When Selecting Lineups

by Michael Blanding

Research finds that NBA coaches give slightly more playing time to players of their own race, but the gap disappears at playoff time. Research by Letian Zhang. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores

by Katherine B. Coffman and David Klinowski

Multiple-choice questions on standardized tests are widely seen as objective measures of student ability, but the common practice of assessing penalties for wrong answers may generate gender bias. This study documents the impact of a policy change that removed penalties for wrong answers on the national college entry exam in Chile. This simple change reduced the gender gap in test performance by 9 percent.