Prejudice and Bias →
- 30 Jun 2020
- What Do You Think?
Is a Business School-Industry Collaboration Needed to Attract Black Talent to Campus?
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; 0 Comments.
- 21 Apr 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Changing In-group Boundaries: The Role of New Immigrant Waves in the US
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.
- 27 Mar 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Novel Risks
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.
- 04 Feb 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Why Backstage Capital Invests in ‘Underestimated’ Entrepreneurs
Laura Huang discusses VC Arlan Hamilton’s strategy of backing entrepreneurs who have been ignored because of stereotypes, biases, and preconceptions. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Sep 2019
- Research & Ideas
'I Know Why You Voted for Trump' and Other Motivation Misperceptions
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; 0 Comments.
- 06 Mar 2019
- Sharpening Your Skills
Has the Glass Ceiling Been Broken (or at Least Cracked)?
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; 0 Comments.
- 04 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
The Revision Bias
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.
- 25 Feb 2019
- Research & Ideas
How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence
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. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Feb 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Stereotypes and Belief Updating
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.
- 07 Jan 2019
- Research & Ideas
The Better Way to Forecast the Future
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; 0 Comments.
- 17 Dec 2018
- Research & Ideas
Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men
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; 0 Comments.
- 08 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct
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.
- 17 Oct 2018
- Research & Ideas
Pro Basketball Coaches Display Racial Bias When Selecting Lineups
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; 0 Comments.
- 17 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores
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.
- 07 Aug 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
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.
- 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; 0 Comments.
- 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 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; 0 Comments.
The Pursuit of Passion Propagates Privilege
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.