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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

#3

Seems really bad!

It's actually worst than I made out in the title. The responses he got under his original name were "almost all negative", not actual invitations. While almost all the response under his pseudonym were positive, some getting out of their way to pull him in.

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

#5
post #3

Seems really bad!

It's actually worst than I made out in the title. The responses he got under his original name were "almost all negative", not actual invitations. While almost all the response under his pseudonym were positive, some getting out of their way to pull him in.

I was curious what her percentage of overlap was between the 17 rejects and 54 accepts (or even the 87 responses) but that was not mentioned.

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

#8
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.

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

#9

A good example of unconscious bias.

Sure, we can give the benefit of the doubt that most were unconscious about it. But the scale of difference in the response rate means that we also can't rule out that there were a minority who rejected him because they are basically racist.
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