Unconscious ( and Conscious? ) Biases

An article in the Harvard Business Review

Are Professors More Likely to Mentor White Male Students?

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.

This article, and in the backdrop of the caste based discrimination issue that's currently playing out right in our most esteemed universities like Hyderabad Central University and JNU, Delhi, bring out just how far we still are from 'fair and equal'. 

It's at times like these that I realize and value, all the more, what organizations like Google do, when they emphasize diversity to the extent they do.

I recall, when I was yet there, HR exploring ways of reducing some basic biases from first level recruitment. They were considering removing of Names, Age, Gender and Photographs from the resume during screening....as it's atleast one level of getting rid of the deep rooted biases we're victims of. 

May their tribe increase.