Abstract: 
Choosing candidates for positions can be tricky, especially when the selection tests are affected by attributes unrelated to job performance (e.g., gender bias in in-person interviews), disfavoring members of certain groups (e.g., women and minorities). To correct such biases, decision-makers need to adjust the scores according to the biasing attribute effect. By doing so, allegedly irrelevant attributes turn into relevant and useful. In the present talk, I will present findings from published and ongoing work showing that people struggle to perform such adjustments intuitively. I elaborate on the social aspect of the phenomenon and suggest that people opt to be blind to such attributes, believing they advance perceived fairness while, paradoxically, compromising it and perpetuating bias.

Hagai Rabinovitch is from Amsterdam School of Economics, University of Amsterdam.