Abstract
In this study, I investigate the role of social networks and biases in access to opportunities at a university setting, where such opportunities require third-party referrals, such as nominations and recommendations. I focus on university students as candidates and faculty members as referrers. Through a field experiment, I explore how these networks influence the request and receipt of referrals, potentially perpetuating biases that disadvantage certain groups in reactive help settings.
In the experiments, students who had been offered a beneficial opportunity (an international training program) are informed that they can participate in the lottery for a valuable prize. The only requirement is to get support from one faculty member from the university. The faculty member will be informed that the student is considered for the lottery because she registered for participating in the training program and also that the reason why the student was invited to the program, which varied by either: their academic merit, their demographics, both, or none. These variations allow me to evaluate how the type of information affects students' likelihood of seeking help, their choice of faculty members, and the likelihood of receiving assistance.
This study complements a previous study on the effect of information on the take-up of educational opportunities (AEARCTR-0013474), where an international training program is offered as an opportunity to students, with the objective of helping develop skills to better attain goals.
Selection for the program focuses on merit (high academic achievement) and identity (low socio-economic status). Targeted individuals are university students to whom the program is offered. Some receive no information about selection (No Info treatment). Others are told they are selected because of who they are, e.g. low SES (ID treatment), because of what they have achieved, e.g. academic merit (Merit Treatment) or both (ID+Merit Treatment).
In this complementary study, I can rely on the data from the previous experiment to evaluate how the signals of selection (which are now required to be disclosed to a faculty endorser) and the likelihood of having completed the training program, impact the choice of seeking help and from whom. Also, data from previous experiments on proactive help allow me to identify proactive helpers, those who chose to make a referral for the offered opportunities. This consistency enables me to examine the relationship between proactive and reactive help. Specifically, I investigate whether faculty members who initiate help in the proactive experiment are also those whom students seek out in the reactive experiment.
The findings from these experiments will provide insights into the presence and extent of biases in referral processes and the effectiveness of awareness interventions in mitigating these biases. I aim to inform strategies for enhancing access to opportunities for underrepresented groups by increasing awareness of potential biases.