Choosing between two semi-finalists: On academic performance gap, sex category, and decision question

Foschi, Martha; Valenzuela, Jerilee

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.07.001

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Several studies and experiments, beginning with the touchstone by Goldberg (1968), have examined unconscious gender bias in evaluation of manuscripts. Many of these studies draw on expectation states theory, posing the assignment of higher prestige or expectations of higher degrees of task competence based on a socially valued attribute or status characteristic (for a review, see Foschi and Valenzuela 2015). Related to writing, this line of work examines the double standard that may be applied by readers and reviewers based on an author's reported gender and in many cases in relation to whether a topic or field is more strongly associated with male or female authorship.…”

Section: Original Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Readers Judge Books by Author Gender? Results from a Randomized Experiment

Kapelner

Weinberg

2019

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

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We run a randomized experiment to examine gender discrimination in book purchasing with 2,544 subjects on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. We manipulate author gender and book genre in a factorial design to study consumer preferences for male versus female versus androgynous authorship. Despite previous findings in the literature showing gender discrimination in book publishing and in evaluations of work, respondents expressed no gender preference across a variety of measures, including quality, interest, and the amount they were willing to pay to purchase the book. This nonfinding, if it holds up to additional research, suggests that book consumers may not express the same discriminatory tendencies observed among indie and traditional publishers.

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Section: Original Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Readers Judge Books by Author Gender? Results from a Randomized Experiment

Kapelner

Weinberg

2019

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiments on gender-based differences in the evaluation of the work or qualifications of male and female workers also tend to show discrimination against women (for a review see [ 23 ]), especially in relation to the gender distribution in a given field or product market. Experiments using identical resumes have found disadvantages for female candidates in evaluations of their suitability for academic and scientific jobs [ 23 – 25 ], which are stereotypically male. Taking into consideration the stereotypes attached to particular product markets, Tak, Correll, and Soule [ 26 ] examined ratings of craft beer and cupcakes when producers were thought to be either male or female and found evidence of asymmetric negative bias: products made by women are disadvantaged in male-product markets (beer) while products by men suffer no disadvantage in female-product markets (cupcakes).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do book consumers discriminate against Black, female, or young authors?

Weinberg

Kapelner

2022

PLoS ONE

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The publishing industry shows marked evidence of both gender and racial discrimination. A rational explanation for this difference in treatment of both female and Black authors might relate to the taste-based preferences of book consumers, who might be less willing to pay for books by such authors. We ran a randomized experiment to test for the presence of discriminatory preferences by consumers based on authors’ race, gender and/or age. We collected ratings of 25,201 book surveys across 9,072 subjects on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, making this study the largest experimental study of the book market to date. Subjects were presented with mocked-up book covers and descriptions from each of 14 fiction and non-fiction genres, with one of three possible titles per book randomly assigned. Using author names and photographs, we signaled authors’ race, gender, and age and randomly assigned these combinations to each book presented to our subjects. We then asked subjects to rate their interest in purchasing the book, their evaluation of the author’s credentials, and the amount they were willing to pay for the book. The experimental design of this study strived to eliminate the potential for proxy-based discrimination by providing book descriptions that detailed the authors’ relevant professional experience. The large sample allowed for exploration of various types of taste-based discrimination observed in the literature, including discrimination against particular groups, homophily, and pro-social behavior. Overall, book consumers showed a willingness to pay approximately $0.50 or 3.5% more on average for books by Black authors and little, if any, practically meaningful discrimination based on age or gender. In other words, our study finds no and even contrary evidence of taste-based preferences by consumers that would rationalize the historic discriminatory treatment of Black or of female authors by publishers nor of discrimination based on an author’s age.

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The Theories of Status Characteristics and Expectation States

WebsterJr.

Walker

2016

Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research

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Choosing between two semi-finalists: On academic performance gap, sex category, and decision question

Cited by 5 publications

References 55 publications

Do Readers Judge Books by Author Gender? Results from a Randomized Experiment

Do Readers Judge Books by Author Gender? Results from a Randomized Experiment

Do book consumers discriminate against Black, female, or young authors?

The Theories of Status Characteristics and Expectation States

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