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PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

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Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#112
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a reddit thread with a baity title on a guaranteed flamewar topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32823355

Maybe if posts like that were not flagged, the topic would be less of a flamewar

I don't think that's how flamewars work.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point. This is exactly why no one should use their native names in job applications.

I work in finance, everyone i deal with who is Chinese has 2 names, a local one and an English one. So you talk to people, they are introduced to westerners like me as James or Susan. Then you find out they are actually Bai Zhang but they are (understandably) tired of spelling it, getting it mis-pronounced or getting called Zhang Bai or similar. I always thought that was very sensible. I wonder if I should do the sam…

I visited Taiwan once and I was amused that several people were introduced to me as "Bob Wang" and "Jason Hsu" and such. Which I very much appreciate because I'm very bad at the tones, I especially can't do that downy-uppy one to save my life.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had coworkers with Muslim-sounding names before and casual work conversation was about the same. It’s not like we usually sit around discussing religious doctrine.

Not all Muslims are religious nutjobs either.

on the other hand, all the religious nutjobs I met at work were Muslims. But that might be a sample bias as I'm in Western Europe and not the US

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't find the hackernews post (probably got removed) but it was a link to this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/xcrv6k/i_sent_1...

In general, I do not think flagged posts get removed (I have access to multiple such posts). But they probably are not listed in the search indices, only available with a direct link (e.g. from your comment history if you commented there).

If you are past a modest karma speedbump, anyone can hit flag. It right next to the upvote button.

Those articles are not [dead] but the algorithm penalizes them when ranking the front page.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#116

There was a similar post a few days ago where someone did this but instead of changing their name they changed their gender (female names got significantly more responses). That post got flagged and this post is in the frontpage. Interesting.

Do you know why the other post was flagged?

Flagging is done by the community. Anyone with the karma can hit the flag button.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#117
There was Dutch PhD research done not so long ago.

https://www.advalvas.vu.nl/nieuws/met-een-arabische-naam-heb...

Translation of the relevant part:

With an Arabic name you have less chance of a job

Employers still discriminate on a large scale, according to the dissertation of the Utrecht sociologist Lieselotte Blommaert. She put more than six hundred resumes online on websites where employers look for personnel, half were posted by fictitious natives, the other half by fictitious immigrant applicants.

Highly educated people discriminate less

The CV of Joris or Jan appears to be requested by employers fifty percent more often than the CV of Aicha or Amir. Once the resumes have been viewed, native applicants appear to have a 60% higher chance of being invited for an interview. “It doesn't matter what kind of education people have,” says Blommaert. “It happens to immigrants regardless of their gender, education level or age.” Discrimination is not always malicious, emphasizes Blommaert. “The research shows that unconscious processes also have an influence. When a lot of application letters come in, people still select intuitively.” For example, employers who have more positive contact with immigrants discriminate less, as do women. Also striking: people with a higher education are less inclined to discriminate.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#118

There was a similar post a few days ago where someone did this but instead of changing their name they changed their gender (female names got significantly more responses). That post got flagged and this post is in the frontpage. Interesting.

Any chance you can find the link to the dead post? I am curious to see it.

Archived here: https://archive.ph/2j8Fw

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#119

"The results themselves were not surprising to me. I was more surprised to encounter harassment from researchers constantly advocating for equality, inclusion, and diversity." If he's holding it high He's telling a lie - Steely Dan

Well, he was telling a lie.

Re: PhD gets 5x increase in postdoc interview invitations by just changing his name

#120
post #27

Before a knee jerk response of unconscious bias, which I’m in no way denying, it is more important to know how this research was conducted. What about the publications and references? It’s not like the job is flipping burgers - postdoctoral positions are extremely specific and people tend to know each other within a couple of hops on their social network.

Indeed it is not a rigours experiment by any stretch of the imagination. But the difference in scale in response (and the fact his profile looks earnest) we have an interesting data point on bias in academia.

Well, apparently we don't have an interesting data point since this "experiment" seems likely to be a fabrication - https://tracingwoodgrains.substack.com/p/viral-racism-in-aca...
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