Facts

Contact person:
Sayaka Osanami Törngren
Financer:
  • Swedish Research Council
Responsible at MaU:
Sayaka Osanami Törngren
Project members at MaU:
Collaborators :
  • Marcus Nyström – Lund University (Project member)
  • Other expert members who will collaborate in the project:
  • Cissi Ovesdotter Alm and Jeff Pelz –Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Eva Van Belle – NCCR/University of Neuchâtel
  • Dan Witzner Hansen – IT-University of Copenhagen
  • Karen Suyemoto – University of Massachusetts
  • Pieter Bevelander – Malmö University
Time frame:
01 January 2021 - 31 December 2024
Faculty/department:
Research environment :
Research subject:

About the project

This project investigates the mechanisms and processes of ethnic and racial discrimination in hiring by examining employment decisions using eye-tracking in combination with dialogue and surveys in an experimental setting. The project’s basic research contribution is to establish eye-tracking as a new means to understand implicit biases that affect the mechanism and process of racial discrimination in hiring. As well, the project aims to clarify the processes underlying the existence of racial discrimination in hiring which has been established by other types of experimental methods such as correspondence testing. The quantitative and qualitative data examine the relation between what employers attend to when reviewing a CV (demonstrated through eye-tracking) and what employers communicate about their decision-making process (demonstrated through dialogue), and how this correlates with expressed attitudes (demonstrated through a survey).

Based on the results of eye-tracking, dialogue and surveys, the project will explore ideas and attempt interventions in two ways:

  • a. through introducing small modifications in the CVs and
  • b. through subtle gaze direction, guiding attention to specific parts of the CVs.

Expected results

The expected results of this project are highly relevant in Swedish society today in order to identify the practice and mechanisms of labour market discrimination, specifically the process of how unconscious and conscious choices are made when recruiting.

Ethical review

The study is financed by the Swedish Research Council (2020-01204) and is approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (2022-00584-01).

Participate in the study

This survey can be answered by anybody who has been involved in recruitment processes. This project, through simulating a situation of recruitment processes using fictitious CVs, examines the decision-making processes in the initial stage of recruitment. The results from the project will benefit you and your organization in understanding how you recruit persons with the necessary competencies and the greatest potential.