IdEP Seminar, Anne Boring - "Social desirability bias in attitudes towards sexism and DEI policies in the workplace"
Institute of Economics
Date: 29 April 2024 / 12:00 - 13:15
Red room (USI main building at the Executive Center), Università della Svizzera italiana, Campus Ovest
Do workers speak their mind about sexism and about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the workplace? We measure social desirability bias regarding sexism and DEI policies using a list experiment survey among workers from five male-dominated industries in France and in the US. In both countries and, remarkably, among both men and women, we document substantial social desirability bias. Managers exhibit a larger bias than non-managerial employees. This difference between voiced and real attitudes may make organizations overestimate support for DEI policies in their workforce, rendering such policies less effective.
This paper is joint work with Josse Delfgaauw (Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute)
Anne Boring
Associate Professor at the Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Head of the Women in Business Chair, Sciences Po, Paris (LIEPP & PRESAGE)
Research Fellow, Tinbergen Institute
