Unconscious bias sneaks up on you. In medicine, it can be deadly, but in other fields, it can kill careers.
We’ve long known that university students favor male professors and rate them higher than female professors. While you can argue that overall men tend to be better professors than women, there was a strong suggestion that some unconscious bias was at play. (Additionally, I don’t think students are actually the best judge of a professor’s performance, but that’s a topic for a different day.)
A large American university changed their ratings from a 10 point scale to a 6 point scale for reasons unrelated to gender bias. Researchers Lauren Rivera is an Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at Kellogg School of Management and András Tilcsik is an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management thought this was the perfect data set to look at bias.
To keep reading, click here: This Simple Trick Can Help Eliminate Gender Bias in Performance Ratings
These gender bias during performance ratings is one factor in why men earn more than women.
Changing the test and getting different results should tell you the testing itself may not be reliable. Any type of meaningful study should be supported by testing that has been validated as accurate and reproducible. The issue with surveys is they are subject to all kinds of biases. How the questions are asked, the rating scale, and even subject fatigue all can make different results. As we see here gender biases are now included.