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Accent Bias and Fair Access in Britain

英国的口音偏见和公平准入

基本信息

批准号：
ES/P007767/1
负责人：
Erez Levon
金额：
$ 60.02万
依托单位：
Queen Mary University of London
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FP007767%2F1
关键词：
Accent Bias Fair Access Britain

项目摘要

RATIONALEFair access to employment is the cornerstone of a just, equal and socially mobile society. Despite efforts in recent years by government and industry to implement fair access policies, a 2015 report by the government's Social Mobility Commission revealed persistent bias in recruitment and selection processes in elite sectors of the UK economy in favour of applicants from middle-class backgrounds. This bias, which Commission Chair Alan Milburn describes as keeping working-class candidates "locked out of top jobs", results in part from the reliance on subjective and non-educationally-based "talent" criteria, such as a candidate's appearance and communication style, when making hiring decisions. Characterised by the report as "poshness tests", talent criteria such as these privilege middle-class norms and behaviours, such as accent, at the expense of an objective assessment of a candidate's aptitude, and can ultimately impede social mobility.This project examines the role of accent bias in hiring situations in the legal profession, a sector identified by the Commission report as particularly prone to the use of subjective criteria. Specifically, we investigate whether bias against certain regional and class-linked accents in the UK interferes with employers' objective assessment of a candidate's job suitability. We also investigate sources of bias and test whether different anti-bias interventions are effective. For scholars in linguistics, social psychology and related fields, the project offers an updated quantitative examination of attitudes to accent variation in Britain, and a novel understanding of the real-world effects of accent bias. For legal, HR, and policy stakeholders, the project responds to a key recommendation of the Commission's report about the need to "interrogate current definitions of talent ... to ensure that applicants are not ruled out for reasons of background rather than aptitude and skill" and provides concrete evidence on the efficacy of different types of interventions. RESEARCH PLANThe project makes use of survey and experimental methods to examine the effect of accent bias on hiring decisions in law firms. Five accents that differ in terms of region and class will be examined: two Northern (Leeds, General Northern), two Southern (Estuary, Multicultural London), and the nationwide standard (Received Pronunciation). The project is composed of two phases. In Phase 1, we collect large-scale quantitative data on how the UK public evaluate these five accents in a hiring context. This provides an up-to-date picture, currently lacking, of attitudes to accents in the UK today and how those attitudes vary across the UK population. In Phase 2, we focus specifically on attitudes among lawyers in hiring contexts, given concerns about lack of diversity in this sector. We examine whether a candidate's aptitude and skill may be obscured by their accent. 120 expert evaluators (lawyers) are divided into three groups: one completes the judgement task with no prior information, and the other two first receive different anti-bias interventions. This design allows us to investigate whether accent interferes with the fair assessment of a candidate's suitability for employment, and whether such bias can be mitigated by different possible interventions. We draw on theories of discrimination from social psychology and labour market economics to analyse the origins of any bias effects observed (e.g., personal exposure to accents vs. received attitudes to social groups) and to inform data-driven policy recommendations.Findings will be disseminated to academic colleagues via conferences, seminars and articles; to stakeholders and policymakers via policy papers, workshops and training materials; and to the general public via the media and an interactive project website.

合理性公平就业机会是公正、平等和社会移动的社会的基石。尽管政府和行业近年来努力实施公平准入政策，但政府社会流动委员会2015年的一份报告显示，英国经济精英部门的招聘和选拔过程中存在持续的偏见，有利于来自中产阶级背景的申请人。委员会主席艾伦·米尔本（Alan Milburn）将这种偏见描述为将工人阶级候选人“锁定在顶级职位之外”，部分原因是在做出招聘决定时依赖主观和非教育基础的“人才”标准，例如候选人的外表和沟通风格。这类人才标准被该报告称为“上流社会测试”，它们赋予了中产阶级的规范和行为特权，如口音，而牺牲了对候选人能力的客观评估，最终可能阻碍社会流动性，该项目审查了口音偏见在法律的职业招聘中的作用，该委员会报告指出，这一行业特别倾向于使用主观标准。具体来说，我们调查是否偏见对某些地区和阶级联系的口音在英国干扰雇主的客观评估候选人的工作适合性。我们还调查了偏见的来源，并测试了不同的反偏见干预措施是否有效。对于语言学，社会心理学和相关领域的学者来说，该项目提供了对英国口音变化态度的最新定量检查，以及对口音偏见的现实影响的新理解。对于法律的、人力资源和政策利益相关者来说，该项目响应了委员会报告中关于需要“质疑当前人才定义.”的关键建议。确保申请人不会因背景而不是能力和技能而被排除在外”，并提供了关于不同类型干预措施效力的具体证据。研究计划本研究采用问卷调查和实验的方法，考察口音偏见对律师事务所招聘决策的影响。将检查五种不同地区和阶级的口音：两种北方口音（利兹，一般北方），两种南方口音（河口，多元文化伦敦）和全国标准（标准发音）。该项目由两个阶段组成。在第一阶段，我们收集了大规模的定量数据，了解英国公众在招聘环境中如何评估这五种口音。这提供了一个最新的图片，目前缺乏，在英国今天的口音的态度，以及这些态度如何在英国人口的变化。在第二阶段，我们特别关注律师在招聘环境中的态度，因为人们担心这个行业缺乏多样性。我们会检查应聘者的能力和技能是否会被他们的口音所掩盖。120名专家评估员（律师）被分为三组：一组在没有先验信息的情况下完成判断任务，另两组首先接受不同的反偏见干预。这种设计使我们能够调查口音是否会干扰对候选人是否适合就业的公平评估，以及这种偏见是否可以通过不同的干预措施来减轻。我们利用社会心理学和劳动力市场经济学的歧视理论来分析观察到的任何偏见效应的起源（例如，调查结果将通过会议、研讨会和文章向学术界同仁传播;通过政策文件、讲习班和培训材料向利益攸关方和决策者传播;通过媒体和互动项目网站向公众传播。