Committees with implicit biases promote fewer women when they do not believe gender bias exists.

Abstract

Whether gender bias contributes to women's under-representation in scientific fields is still controversial. Past research is limited by relying on explicit questionnaire ratings in mock-hiring scenarios, thereby ignoring the potential role of implicit gender bias in the real world. We examine the interactive effect of explicit and implicit gender biases on promotion decisions made by scientific evaluation committees representing the whole scientific spectrum in the course of an annual nationwide competition for elite research positions. Findings reveal that committees with strong implicit gender biases promoted fewer women at year 2 (when committees were not reminded of the study) relative to year 1 (when the study was announced) if those committees did not explicitly believe that external barriers hold women back. When committees believed that women face external barriers, implicit biases did not predict selecting more men over women. This finding highlights the importance of educating evaluative committees about gender biases.