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When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation

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  • Bazerman, Max H.
  • Bohnet, Iris
  • Van Geen, Alexandra Vivien

Abstract

We examine a new intervention to overcome gender biases in hiring, promotion, and job assignments: an “evaluation nudge,†in which people are evaluated jointly rather than separately regarding their future performance. Evaluators are more likely to focus on individual performance in joint than in separate evaluation and on group stereotypes in separate than in joint evaluation, making joint evaluation the money-maximizing evaluation procedure. Our findings are compatible with a behavioral model of information processing and with the System 1/System 2 distinction in behavioral decision research where people have two distinct modes of thinking that are activated under certain conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bazerman, Max H. & Bohnet, Iris & Van Geen, Alexandra Vivien, 2012. "When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation," Scholarly Articles 8506867, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:hrv:hksfac:8506867
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Goodall, Amanda H. & Osterloh, Margit, 2015. "Women Have to Enter the Leadership Race to Win: Using Random Selection to Increase the Supply of Women into Senior Positions," IZA Discussion Papers 9331, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Bergers, Dominic & Faßnacht, Martin, 2017. "Debiasing Strategies in the Price Management Process," Marketing Review St.Gallen, Universität St.Gallen, Institut für Marketing und Customer Insight, vol. 34(6), pages 50-58.
    4. Heinz, Matthias & Normann, Hans-Theo & Rau, Holger A., 2016. "How competitiveness may cause a gender wage gap: Experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 336-349.
    5. Heinz, Matthias & Normann, Hans-Theo & Rau, Holger A., 2016. "How competitiveness may cause a gender wage gap: Experimental evidence," DICE Discussion Papers 213, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    6. Alexia Gaudeul & Ayu Okvitawanli & Marian Panganiban, 2015. "Does the gender mix among employers influence who gets hired? A labor market experiment," Jena Economics Research Papers 2015-007, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.

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