Name Discrimination Bias; AI Segregation & Why Marginalized Applicants Are “Whitening” Their Names
In many ways, we can all relate to feeling a sense of urgency, nervousness, anxiety, or other anticipation when applying for a job, landing an interview, and finally, as hoped for, being given a job offer.
What not all people searching for a job may relate to is being discriminated against before even being able to meet an employer solely because of the spelling of their name.
Name discrimination and other biases
There are physical biases that employers pose on candidates during an interview process, and while these discriminatory biases can reduce an applicant’s standing to their gender, weight, race, and measure of beauty, biases of physical appearance also affect how much an individual is paid or how likely they are to be hired at all;
“The findings of the UB study show, ‘Attractive people are more likely to get hired, receive better evaluations and get paid more.’ The results indicate that there is something called a ‘beauty premium’ that exists across professions.”
There are a large number of marginalized people experiencing discrimination before even being seen in an interview.
Why?
Because of their name.
There have been studies implemented in the United Kingdom for more than fifty years to determine if this name discrimination takes place in a job applicant setting;
“…researchers in the US and UK examining racial discrimination have had in their armoury the use of field experiments, the so-called ‘matched pairs’ method… the approach makes at least two applications with identical content (e.g. skills, qualification, and training) but differs in the name of the applicant; one job application uses a conventional white-majority name and the other signals that the applicant has an ethnic or racial minority name… their findings move them to call out what they term ‘systemic illegal discrimination.’”
Teen Vogue also released an article covering the identity that one holds with the use of their name and how often those searching for a job are afraid they won’t be considered due to the spelling or pronunciation of their name;
“In most cases, your name enters a room before you physically do. And your name can prompt others to create predetermined ideas about what you have to offer.”
We all experience rejection, and being a part of the job application process can hold a healthy amount of rejection for some.
Still, studies have shown that real segregation and discrimination take place within the hiring process, and many applicants have been tempted to change their name to even be considered. Yet, they account for feeling like a fraud as they have had to accommodate others and, in doing so, have shed a part of their identity.
This is not a routine rejection experience. This is name discrimination.
The idea of “whitening” your name to level the playing field in the initial screening process of hiring has become some applicant’s measure when determining the morals of the company as a whole. Other applicants have seen the unfortunate benefits of holding assumed, generic, or “easy to pronounce” names that may lead a hiring agent, employer, or human resource lead to sway their decision.
Gender discrimination can also take place within the hiring process; a woman changed her name to an assumed male name to see if she would gain a different response from an employer,
“Sure enough, one of the jobs that I had applied for as Margaret, I reapplied and completely made up the name Garrett and got a call back in, like, two hours, which was just very maddening.”
Depending on the job, other factors contribute to discrimination;
“discrimination was concentrated in customer-facing industries such as restaurants and retail and clothing sectors. Industries without customer-facing roles, like jobs in freight and transportation industries, showed low discrimination levels against Black names…”
AI can be damaging to DE&I efforts
HR departments are using AI-driven recruitment tools to save time in the hiring process. However, the use of AI can be damaging to DE&I efforts within the workplace if not used correctly.
This is why DEI officers and advocates are needed within each company to ensure they are using the proper hiring tools when creating a safe, diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace where employees feel a sense of belonging and understanding to perform the job at hand in a prosperous way, both for the individual and the company as a whole.
Prepared by: Mariah Manes
