You drive like a girl: Study uncovers gender bias in perceptions of ride-sharing performance | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › You drive like a girl: Study uncovers gender bias in perceptions of ride-sharing performance You drive like a girl: Study uncovers gender bias in perceptions of ride-sharing performance Published: November 09, 2020 Author: Shannon Roddel ND Experts Corey Angst Professor A car driving for Uber and Lyft. Gender discrimination continues to plague organizations, and “gig economy” businesses, which have thrived over the last decade, are not immune, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame. Gig economy businesses, including Uber and Airbnb, offer temporary positions to independent workers while relying on consumer ratings and reviews as part of their advertising and marketing strategies. But the system has its flaws. While digital brokerages provide a more efficient method for the exchange of goods and services and an improved way for consumers to voice their opinions about the quality of work they receive, bias and discrimination can emerge as part of the review process, according to “How unbecoming of you: Online experiments uncovering gender biases in perceptions of ridesharing performance,” forthcoming in the Journal of Business Ethics from Nathan Meikle, postdoctoral research and teaching associate, and Corey Angst, professor of information technology, analytics and operations at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. For the study, the team created an ostensibly new ride-sharing service called Agile Rides with a publicly available mock website to reinforce its legitimacy. The team asked 919 participants from the crowdsourcing website Amazon MTurk to help them understand what makes a good rider experience and to imagine going through a detailed experience based on a recent customer experience with a driver. The vignette varied by gender and whether the rider had a good or bad experience. Participants then rated driver performance. “In the online experiment, we examined participants’ perceptions of the drivers,” said Meikle, who specializes in social perception and its implications for organizations. “When driver performance was high-quality, participants rated female and male drivers equally. However, when driver performance was low-quality, participants rated female drivers significantly lower than male drivers.”  In the gig economy, the traditional manager-subordinate relationship is absent and drivers receive their “performance evaluations” from customers. The team points out that because digital platforms represent new, rapidly growing work environments capable of subjecting workers to bias and discrimination from a wide number of evaluators, companies should — for moral, strategic and legal reasons — consider algorithmic weightings based on gender to combat discrimination. “If customers discriminate against female drivers, the female drivers may be dismissed from the platform, or at least punished financially, for performing equal quality work as men,” Meikle said. “When employees’ compensation and job security depend on the ratings of customers rather than on the ratings of managers, companies should examine whether customers are rating employees fairly and adjust the ratings accordingly.” Co-authors of the study include Brad Greenwood from George Mason University and Idris Adjerid from Virginia Tech.   Contact: Nathan Meikle, 574-631-5317, nmeikle@nd.edu; Corey Angst, 574-631-4772, cangst@nd.edu Posted In: Research Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 05, 2022 Astrophysicists find evidence for the presence of the first stars October 04, 2022 NIH awards $4 million grant to psychologists researching suicide prevention September 29, 2022 Notre Dame, Ukrainian Catholic University launch three new research grants September 27, 2022 Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin engineers join to advance novel treatment for cystic fibrosis September 22, 2022 Climate-prepared countries are losing ground, latest ND-GAIN index shows For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn