Differential listening in diverse teams

Abstract

Conflict and communication difficulties are commonly cited as reasons for why assembling diverse teams does not generate its expected benefits. This paper studies a possible mechanism underlying this result: the voices of women and minoritized racial/ethnic groups are disproportionately discounted. In an on line experiment, we study differential listening in diverse teams in a hiring context, where committee leaders aggregate input from committee members when selecting a wage to offer a job applicant and no differences in quality of input exist. We find clear evidence of differential listening by race. Committee leaders are less influenced by input from Black committee members than they are ..