Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads
Copyright: © 2019 INFORMS We explore data from a field test of how an algorithm delivered ads promoting job opportunities in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. This ad was explicitly intended to be gender neutral in its delivery. Empirically, however, fewer women saw the ad than m...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134404 |
| _version_ | 1811082672831725568 |
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| author | Lambrecht, Anja Tucker, Catherine |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Lambrecht, Anja Tucker, Catherine |
| author_sort | Lambrecht, Anja |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Copyright: © 2019 INFORMS We explore data from a field test of how an algorithm delivered ads promoting job opportunities in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. This ad was explicitly intended to be gender neutral in its delivery. Empirically, however, fewer women saw the ad than men. This happened because younger women are a prized demographic and are more expensive to show ads to. An algorithm that simply optimizes cost-effectiveness in ad delivery will deliver ads that were intended to be gender neutral in an apparently discriminatory way, because of crowding out. We show that this empirical regularity extends to other major digital platforms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:07:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/134404 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:07:05Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1344042023-11-08T21:54:53Z Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads Lambrecht, Anja Tucker, Catherine Sloan School of Management Copyright: © 2019 INFORMS We explore data from a field test of how an algorithm delivered ads promoting job opportunities in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. This ad was explicitly intended to be gender neutral in its delivery. Empirically, however, fewer women saw the ad than men. This happened because younger women are a prized demographic and are more expensive to show ads to. An algorithm that simply optimizes cost-effectiveness in ad delivery will deliver ads that were intended to be gender neutral in an apparently discriminatory way, because of crowding out. We show that this empirical regularity extends to other major digital platforms. 2021-10-27T20:04:51Z 2021-10-27T20:04:51Z 2019 2021-04-01T14:44:01Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134404 en 10.1287/MNSC.2018.3093 Management Science Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) SSRN |
| spellingShingle | Lambrecht, Anja Tucker, Catherine Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads |
| title | Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads |
| title_full | Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads |
| title_fullStr | Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads |
| title_full_unstemmed | Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads |
| title_short | Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads |
| title_sort | algorithmic bias an empirical study of apparent gender based discrimination in the display of stem career ads |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134404 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lambrechtanja algorithmicbiasanempiricalstudyofapparentgenderbaseddiscriminationinthedisplayofstemcareerads AT tuckercatherine algorithmicbiasanempiricalstudyofapparentgenderbaseddiscriminationinthedisplayofstemcareerads |