Are You Part of The Problem or Part of The Solution?
One of my favorite teachers in grade school often asked: are you part of the problem or part of the solution? He didn’t ask it when my classmates and I turned our homework in late or acted out in class, but when we talked about big social problems. Inequality. Racism. World hunger. Climate change. War. Homelessness.
I’ve frequently thought about this question during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Black History Month, I suspect we’re all reflecting particularly deeply on ways we can be part of the solution. In the hopes that it may help, I’m sharing research on stereotyping, which lies at the heart of many social problems.
In addition to sharing a Q&A as usual, I’ve gathered some fantastic listens and reads from researchers who study bias that I hope you’ll enjoy:
Recommended Listens and Reads
The Person You Mean to Be: I strongly recommend this book if you want to learn how to be part of the solution to bias. NYU Stern School of Management Professor Dolly Chugh has written an engaging, science-based guide to fighting bias at work and in the world at large.
How to Let Go of Becoming a Good Person – and Become a Better Person: Dolly’s popular TED talk gives you a 10-minute preview of her fabulous book.
The Myth of Racial Progress: Americans believe that racial inequality is linearly declining, and in this Atlantic article, Yale psychologist Jennifer Richeson explains why this misperception may be hindering progress.
Does Diversity Training Work? In this Harvard Business Review article, my co-authors and I describe our research suggesting that online diversity training can change our attitudes but may be of limited value for changing behavior.
Q&A: Stereotypes, Bias, and Counter-Stereotypical Exemplars
Today I’m sharing an interview I conducted for Choiceology with Columbia Business School Professor Modupe Akinola. Modupe is an expert in workforce diversity. She studies how organizations can diversify their talent pools as well as how race and gender biases affect recruitment and retention. In this Q&A, we talk about stereotypes, bias, and the power of counteracting stereotypes.
Me: Let's start at the beginning. What is a stereotype?
Modupe: A stereotype is a snap judgment we make about a person or thing that can influence our decision making. Every day we get millions, and millions, and millions of bits of information that associate good and bad with certain people, groups, or things, and anytime we then see those people, groups, or things, that association comes immediately to our minds.
Me: Why do you think we stereotype?
Modupe: We’re processing so much information all the time, we need these mental short cuts to allow us to navigate the world. If not, we wouldn't be able to function, quite frankly. We have to make quick judgements to make life easier and to simplify, but any type of short cut can have its pros and cons.
Me: What are some of your favorite studies about stereotyping?
Modupe: My favorite are studies where you observe real world behavior. One study tested ads in the newspaper for entry level positions. They sent candidate résumés to these job ads, which were identical, and changed the name on the resumes to signal race. Lakisha and Jamal were Black-sounding names versus a name like Catherine, which would be a more white-sounding name. They waited to see who called back for which candidates. The Lakishas and Jamals received fewer call backs for an interview than the identical candidates with white-sounding names.
This is attributed to stereotypes. We make presumptions and snap judgments about who might be more qualified for a job, who might do well in a job, even in the context of identical information.
Me: Modupe, would you be willing to describe some of the work we’ve done together on stereotyping?
Modupe: Certainly. We — you, I, and Dolly Chugh — wanted to see if racial or gender stereotypes impact the pathway to academia. As you’re applying or thinking about getting a PhD, often you’ll reach out to a professor and ask “are you taking graduate students” or “can I learn more about your research?” We get these emails all the time asking for time on our schedule. And we wanted to see if professors would differentially respond to these requests depending on the race and gender of the requester.
We sent identical emails to around 6,500 professors across the country, at both private and public universities, except we varied the race and gender of the name of the applicant.
These emails said, “Dear professor so and so, I’ll be on campus on XYZ day and was wondering if I could take some time to learn about your research.” The names on these emails were Chinese, Indian, African-American, Latino, and white-sounding names.
We expected to see more stereotyping or discrimination (i.e., fewer responses) to non-white male names when asked to meet next week than today. Why? Today, everyone's pretty busy and so there's no time for stereotypes or snap judgements to come into your mind about who might be a more qualified student, who you might want to respond to and meet with.
However, in a meeting request for next week, you might go through more scrutiny about whether the candidate is worthy of your time. We thought that's when stereotypes would set in. Maybe for some categories it's “Do they have English language proficiency?” For others, given the lack of minorities in academia in general, there might be the question of “Can they cut it?”
As we predicted, we did find fewer responses for women and people of color, pooled together, than for white males to meeting requests for next week.
Me: How can we counteract stereotypes?
Modupe: As an African-American professor, in the early days of my teaching I'd often find myself setting up to teach a class and somebody would come in and say, “I’d like to sit in and learn more about this class. Where's the professor?” They would say that to me as I was setting up, looking like the professor, on the computer getting everything ready. That for me, was a perfect example of how stereotypes can play a role.
The stereotype of what a professor looks like is an older, white man with gray hair. I love those moments, in some ways, because one of the ways in which you change people's stereotypes is by having counter-stereotypical exemplars.
As an African-American, female professor, a student's mere exposure to me means that the next time they go into a classroom with an African-American woman setting up, or someone else who might defy the stereotype of what a professor looks like, they won't automatically say, “where's the professor?”
I often tell my students they have a beautiful opportunity to be the walking, breathing, and living, counter-stereotypical exemplars in their work environments. I ask them to think about the stereotypes that exist about them, the stereotypes that exist about people around them, the stereotypes that exist about people on their teams, and to realize that every day they have the opportunity to defy those stereotypes.
To learn more from Modupe, check out the TED Business Podcast she hosts or listen to the episode of Choiceology about stereotyping.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
That’s all for this month’s newsletter. See you in March!
Katy Milkman, PhD
Professor at Wharton, host of Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, and author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be