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posted by Fnord666 on Friday October 25 2019, @03:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the sorry-that-position-has-been-taken dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Class bias in hiring based on few seconds of speech

Candidates at job interviews expect to be evaluated on their experience, conduct, and ideas, but a new study by Yale researchers provides evidence that interviewees are judged based on their social status seconds after they start to speak.

The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates that people can accurately assess a stranger's socioeconomic position -- defined by their income, education, and occupation status -- based on brief speech patterns and shows that these snap perceptions influence hiring managers in ways that favor job applicants from higher social classes.

"Our study shows that even during the briefest interactions, a person's speech patterns shape the way people perceive them, including assessing their competence and fitness for a job," said Michael Kraus, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management. "While most hiring managers would deny that a job candidate's social class matters, in reality, the socioeconomic position of an applicant or their parents is being assessed within the first seconds they speak -- a circumstance that limits economic mobility and perpetuates inequality."

[...] "We rarely talk explicitly about social class, and yet, people with hiring experience infer competence and fitness based on socioeconomic position estimated from a few second of an applicant's speech," Kraus said. "If we want to move to a more equitable society, then we must contend with these ingrained psychological processes that drive our early impressions of others. Despite what these hiring tendencies may suggest, talent is not found solely among those born to rich or well-educated families. Policies that actively recruit candidates from all levels of status in society are best positioned to match opportunities to the people best suited for them."

Journal Reference:
Michael W. Kraus et al. Evidence for the reproduction of social class in brief speech[$]. PNAS, 2019 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1900500116


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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @03:43PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @03:43PM (#911667)

    No, this bias just gives psychopaths who want to game the system an advantage over others. Speaking skills are usually not the main skills required for the job, so this proves once again that meritocracy is nothing but a myth. It doesn't matter that you can do the job very well, because the employer doesn't like what you're wearing, your specific speech pattern, or some other irrelevant characteristic.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @04:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @04:03PM (#911686)

    It's true - if you are OK to look at and speak the right way, the world is your oyster. Until you and people like you destroy all the oysters through incompetence. Look at British politicians for examples.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday October 25 2019, @11:13PM (2 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday October 25 2019, @11:13PM (#911904) Homepage

    Speak for yourself. I got a good technology job because I could speak eloquently, now those assholes want me to do people things like schmoozing and other people bullshit I have no patience for, rather than what I want to do, which is more technical work with less people bullshit. Perhaps I shpuld speak in ebonics during my next interview and let the relative whiteness of my skin cola balance it out so I can do fucking work rather than dance and schmooze for the crowd like a fucking zoo animal. Any psychopaths out there want my job?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @01:25AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @01:25AM (#911946)

      Learn Gullah [wikipedia.org]. You could be buddies with Clarence Thomas.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday October 26 2019, @01:53AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday October 26 2019, @01:53AM (#911950) Homepage

        I'd rather learn Gullah so I can get some good Cajun/Creole food in these parts, especially a jerk chicken with the same flavor but without all the fucking sugar. If those could tone down the sweetness a bit, they'd have a mainstream alternative to Chink food that is still uniquely American. Well, Jamaican. But Jamaican can be a good progressive gimmick compared to the ubiquitous sweet Chinese crap.