Words and Biases

In this week’s spotlight I wish to discuss the nature of bias, particularly those biases that most fail to recognize as a bias at all. Last week I read and shared a new study that showed that men have a working advantage over women in turns of promotional identity, in part simply because of how and when we use surnames. For example, “When talking about famous people, do you say “Darwin” but “Marie Curie?” Dickens but Emily Dickinson? Shakespeare but Jane Austen? What’s in a name—or part of a name—matters.” 1 In eight different studies, research at Cornell University yielded ...