Discrimination, Rejection, and Job Search with Anne Boring

Anonymized hiring practices are a popular tool for organizations seeking effective ways to reduce bias and attract a more diverse pool of talent. In this talk, Prof. Anne Boring will present results of a study that examines how job-seekers respond to anonymized hiring practices in a simulated hiring process and what this reveals about building more inclusive workplaces. Using a large online experiment, the study finds that anonymizing applications encourages more counter-stereotypical candidates to apply, but that anonymized rejections discourage future applications more strongly than non-anonymized ones, particularly for women. These results suggest that while anonymization can broaden the initial applicant pool, its longer-term effects on candidate behavior are more complex and depend largely on how individuals interpret rejection feedback.

Anne Boring is an Associate Professor of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam and an affiliated researcher at Sciences Po, Paris (LIEPP), where she conducts research projects on gender equality. Her research examines the mechanisms that shape gender inequalities in higher education and the workplace. She has analyzed gender biases in student evaluations of teaching, gender differences in students’ educational choices, and disparities in graduates’ access to labor market opportunities. Her current work focuses on policies aimed at improving gender equality in leadership roles and in entrepreneurship.

This virtual seminar is part of WAPPP’s weekly spring seminar series, Fairness and Meritocracy at Work, led by WAPPP co-director Iris Bohnet. Attendance is open to all.