Discrimination affects prospective academics seeking mentoring, according to an experiment of over 6,500 professors at 259 top U.S. universities, led by Katherine Milkman at Wharton. Professors received emails from fictional students asking to discuss research opportunities; the messages were identical except for the students’ names, which were randomly assigned to signal gender and race. The researchers found the professors were significantly more responsive to white males than to all other categories of students, particularly in higher-paying disciplines and at private institutions. In the field of business, for example, women and minorities seeking guidance were collectively ignored at 2.2 times the rate of white males. Such differences in treatment could have meaningful career consequences for individuals and for society, the researchers write.
Source: What Happens Before? A Field Experiment Exploring How Pay and Representation Differentially Shape Bias on the Pathway Into Organizations
