No matter what the name, we’re all the same? Examining ethnic online discrimination in ridesharing marketplaces

Abstract

Sharing marketplaces emerged as the new Holy Grail of value creation by enabling exchanges between strangers. Identity reveal, encouraged by platforms, cuts both ways: While inducing pre-transaction confidence, it is suspected of backfiring on the information senders with its discriminative potential. This study employs a discrete choice experiment to explore the role of names as signifiers of discriminative peculiarities and the importance of accompanying cues in peer choices of a ridesharing offer. We quantify users’ preferences for quality signals in monetary terms and evidence comparative disadvantage of Middle Eastern descent male names for drivers and co-travelers. It translates into a lower willingness to accept and pay for an offer. Market simulations confirm the robustness of the findings. Further, we discover that females are choosier and include more signifiers of involuntary personal attributes in their decision-making. Price discounts and positive information only partly compensate for the initial disadvantage, and identity concealment is perceived negatively.

Digital discrimination detection in ridesharing services

“…Another interesting point, which at the same time corroborates the analysis with the studies found in the literature, was in relation to the provision of passenger information, such as address of origin and destination, to the driver only after accepting the trip as [Miroslav Tushev and Mahmoud 2021], citeGe2016, [Brown 2019] and [Abramova 2020]. However, this was a point where we found opinions differing from the user platform.…”

“…Digital discrimination in shared services has been addressed from different aspects, but the main one found in the literature was diagnosis as in [Abramova 2020] [Brown 2019] [Ge 2018]. But approaches were also found from the aspect of the information system where the interest was divided into identifying biases in the algorithms adopted Shared ride service platforms, with the aim of reducing discrimination on the part of drivers, began sending the least amount of information about the passenger to drivers when distributing the ride request.…”

“…This form of bias is particularly insidious, as it operates beneath an individual's levels of conscious perception, transforming into a subtle yet powerful form of discrimination. Now that we know the main concepts related to prejudice or bias, it is important to understand what it is digital discrimination or discrimination in the online environment occurs when a service is denied to a person or a group of individuals using his personal characteristics available on the services platform that can be used to identify and distinguish them such as symbols, colors, images, text, or graphics [Abramova 2020].…”

Electronic Markets on platform culture

“…Among the many factors that influence the trust between unknown individuals are the names from different cultures as well as the role of gender. The author states that "in ridesharing, participants with European descent names are reluctant to male peers with Middle Eastern descent names, and the nature of this discrimination is taste-based" (Abramova, 2022).…”

Disabled and Romani passengers face similar levels of discrimination but different levels of open hostility in the sharing economy

“…In line with these dual objectives, an emerging literature has started to document discrimination on different platforms of the sharing economy (for a recent review, see Ref. 16 ). In their seminal work, Edelman et al 17 found that Airbnb users with stereotypically African American names were 16% less likely to have their requests for accommodation approved than otherwise identical users with stereotypically White American names (see also Ref.…”