What happens before? A field experiment exploring how pay and representation differentially shape bias on the pathway into organizations.
Open accessAbstract
Little is known about how discrimination manifests before individuals formally apply to organizations or how it varies within and between organizations. We address this knowledge gap through an audit study in academia of over 6,500 professors at top U.S. universities drawn from 89 disciplines and 259 institutions. In our experiment, professors were contacted by fictional prospective students seeking to discuss research opportunities prior to applying to a doctoral program. Names of students were randomly assigned to signal gender and race (White, Black, Hispanic, Indian, Chinese), but messages were otherwise identical. We hypothesized that discrimination would appear at the informal "pathway" preceding entry to academia and would vary by discipline and university as a function of faculty representation and pay. We found that when considering requests from prospective students seeking mentoring in the future, faculty were significantly more responsive to White males than to all other categories of students, collectively, particularly in higher-paying disciplines and private institutions. Counterintuitively, the representation of women and minorities and discrimination were uncorrelated, a finding that suggests greater representation cannot be assumed to reduce discrimination. This research highlights the importance of studying decisions made before formal entry points into organizations and reveals that discrimination is not evenly distributed within and between organizations.
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Names reliably trigger differential treatment in experimental research.
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From All Public Voices Are Equal, But Are Some More Equal Than Others to LLMs? (2026) · cites this paper as [63]
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All Public Voices Are Equal, But Are Some More Equal Than Others to LLMs?
Kim, S., Janssen, M. A., Wang, J., Min-Venditti, A., Karanjia, N., & Anderies, J. M. (2026) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2604.17247
- Authors
- Milkman, K. L., Akinola, M., & Chugh, D.
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 2015-11
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1678-1712
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- OpenAlex
- W3121901131
- Cited by
- 488
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 39 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 135.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Russell Sage Foundation
- Wharton Dean’s Research Fund
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Diversity and Inequality
- Keywords
- discrimination in academia, faculty salaries, faculty representation, gender bias, racial bias, PhD admission, prospective students, academic disciplines, private universities
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Faculty, Female, Humans, Male, Universities, Racism, Sexism
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