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Conformity under uncertainty: Reliance on gender stereotypes in online hiring decisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2014

Eric Luis Uhlmann
Affiliation:
Management and Human Resources Department, HEC Paris – School of Management, 78351 Jouy-en-Josas, France. eric.luis.uhlmann@gmail.comhttp://www.socialjudgments.com/
Raphael Silberzahn
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB1 2AG, United Kingdom. rts27@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/research-mphils-phd/phd/phd-students-a-z/raphael-silberzahn/

Abstract

We apply Bentley et al.’s theoretical framework to better understand gender discrimination in online labor markets. Although such settings are designed to encourage employer behavior in the northwest corner of Homo economicus, actual online hiring decisions tend to drift southeast into a “confirmation bias plus weak feedback loops” pattern of discrimination based on inaccurate social stereotypes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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