PapersFlow Research Brief
Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
Research Guide
What is Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research?
Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research is a field that uses field experiments and audit studies to examine employment discrimination based on names signaling ethnicity, race, and gender in labor markets.
This research cluster contains 33,074 works focused on inequality in employment opportunities. Field experiments send fictitious resumes with names indicating different racial or ethnic backgrounds to job ads. White-sounding names receive 50 percent more callbacks than African-American-sounding names, as shown in audit studies conducted in Boston and Chicago.
Topic Hierarchy
Research Sub-Topics
Racial Discrimination in Resume Audits
This sub-topic examines field experiments sending resumes with racially identifiable names to job postings to measure callback disparities. Researchers analyze how name-based racial cues influence hiring decisions across industries and regions.
Ethnic Name Discrimination in Europe
This sub-topic investigates audit studies using ethnically distinct names common in Europe to uncover hiring biases against immigrants and minorities. Researchers explore variations by country, occupation, and migration status.
Gender Discrimination via Names in Hiring
This sub-topic focuses on correspondence studies testing gendered names on resumes for employment callbacks and wage offers. Researchers study intersectional effects with motherhood or attractiveness inferences.
Implicit Bias in Name Perception
This sub-topic explores psychological mechanisms where names trigger unconscious stereotypes affecting employment evaluations. Researchers use IAT and priming studies linked to hiring contexts.
Intersectional Name Discrimination
This sub-topic studies how names signaling multiple identities (race, gender, ethnicity) compound discrimination in job markets. Researchers employ factorial designs in field experiments to isolate interactions.
Why It Matters
This research documents measurable gaps in hiring callbacks, with Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) finding that resumes with White-sounding names like Emily and Greg receive 50 percent more interview callbacks than those with African-American-sounding names like Lakisha and Jamal in response to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. These findings from "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination" (2004) provide evidence for racial discrimination in initial labor market screening stages. The results inform policy efforts to address hiring biases and support audit studies as a method to quantify discrimination effects across ethnic and gender lines in employment.
Reading Guide
Where to Start
"Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination" by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004), as it provides the foundational field experiment directly testing name-based racial discrimination with clear 50 percent callback gap results.
Key Papers Explained
Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) establish name-based racial discrimination in hiring with resume audit studies. Tajfel (1970) in "Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination" shows how arbitrary groups produce bias, providing psychological foundations for name signaling identity. Nosek et al. (2002) extend to implicit attitudes in "Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site," linking unconscious stereotypes to group preferences observed in labor market callbacks. Meissner and Brigham (2001) review own-race bias in memory, relevant to how names cue racial identity recognition.
Paper Timeline
Most-cited paper highlighted in red. Papers ordered chronologically.
Advanced Directions
Recent preprints are not available. News coverage from the last 12 months is absent. The field relies on established works like Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) without indicated shifts from new data.
Papers at a Glance
| # | Paper | Year | Venue | Citations | Open Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys | 1977 | Journal of Marketing R... | 9.6K | ✕ |
| 2 | Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A F... | 2004 | American Economic Review | 4.3K | ✕ |
| 3 | The Ego and the Id | 1923 | — | 3.5K | ✕ |
| 4 | Factoring and weighting approaches to status scores and clique... | 1972 | Journal of Mathematica... | 3.1K | ✕ |
| 5 | Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Verna... | 1975 | Language | 3.0K | ✕ |
| 6 | Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination | 1970 | Scientific American | 2.4K | ✕ |
| 7 | New directions in attribution research | 1976 | Medical Entomology and... | 2.0K | ✕ |
| 8 | Thirty years of investigating the own-race bias in memory for ... | 2001 | Psychology Public Poli... | 1.5K | ✕ |
| 9 | Through the Looking-Glass: And What Alice Found There | 1871 | — | 1.3K | ✓ |
| 10 | Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonst... | 2002 | Group Dynamics Theory ... | 1.3K | ✕ |
Frequently Asked Questions
What methods are used in names and discrimination research?
Field experiments and audit studies send fictitious resumes with names signaling race, ethnicity, or gender to job advertisements. Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) randomly assigned African-American- or White-sounding names to resumes in Boston and Chicago. This approach isolates name-based discrimination from other resume factors.
How much more employable are White-sounding names compared to Black-sounding names?
White names receive 50 percent more callbacks for interviews than African-American names. This result comes from a field experiment by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) using resumes sent to help-wanted ads. Callbacks remained sensitive to name race even after controlling for qualifications.
What is the focus of the most cited paper in this field?
"Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination" by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) tests race in the labor market. It uses fictitious resumes with names like Emily, Greg, Lakisha, and Jamal sent to newspaper job ads. The study received 4317 citations.
How does this research connect to intergroup discrimination?
Tajfel (1970) conducted experiments showing minimal group differences lead to discrimination in resource allocation. "Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination" demonstrates in-group favoritism emerges from arbitrary categorizations. This relates to name-based biases signaling group identity in hiring.
What role do implicit attitudes play in name discrimination?
Nosek, Banaji, and Greenwald (2002) harvested implicit attitudes from over 600,000 web tasks showing preferences for White over Black groups. "Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site" links these biases to stereotypes affecting hiring. Implicit measures reveal unconscious influences on name evaluations.
What is the current scale of research in this area?
The field includes 33,074 works on discrimination via names, ethnicity, race, and gender in labor markets. Growth data over five years is not available. Keywords include field experiment, audit study, and employment.
Open Research Questions
- ? How do name-based callback disparities vary by occupation, location, or resume quality beyond initial findings?
- ? What interventions reduce discrimination against ethnic or racial names in resume screening?
- ? How do implicit attitudes measured online correlate with real-world hiring decisions based on names?
- ? To what extent do gender-name interactions compound racial discrimination in labor markets?
- ? How has own-race bias in face memory influenced perceptions of identity signaled by names?
Recent Trends
No recent preprints from the last six months or news coverage in the last 12 months are available.
The field maintains 33,074 works with growth data over five years unavailable.
Citation leaders remain Bertrand and Mullainathan at 4317 citations and Armstrong and Overton (1977) at 9640, indicating sustained reliance on classic field experiments.
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