Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • September 2016
  • Article
  • Administrative Science Quarterly

Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market

By: Sonia K. Kang, K. A. DeCelles, András Tilcsik and Sora Jun
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Using interviews, a laboratory experiment, and a résumé audit study, we examine racial minorities’ attempts to avoid anticipated discrimination in labor markets by concealing or downplaying racial cues in job applications, a practice known as "résumé whitening." Interviews with racial minority university students reveal that while some minority job seekers reject this practice, others view it as essential and use a variety of whitening techniques. Building on the qualitative findings, we conduct a lab study to examine how racial minority job seekers change their résumés in response to different job postings. Results show that when targeting an employer that presents itself as valuing diversity, minority job applicants engage in relatively little résumé whitening and thus submit more racially transparent résumés. Yet our audit study of how employers respond to whitened and unwhitened résumés shows that organizational diversity statements are not actually associated with reduced discrimination against unwhitened résumés. Taken together, these findings suggest a paradox: minorities may be particularly likely to experience disadvantage when they apply to ostensibly pro-diversity employers. These findings illuminate the role of racial concealment and transparency in modern labor markets and point to an important interplay between the self-presentation of employers and the self-presentation of job seekers in shaping economic inequality.

Keywords

Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Job Search; Race

Citation

Kang, Sonia K., K. A. DeCelles, András Tilcsik, and Sora Jun. "Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market." Administrative Science Quarterly 61, no. 3 (September 2016): 469–502.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

More from the Authors

    • December 2016
    • Strategic Management Journal

    Through the Mud or in the Boardroom: Examining Activist Types and Their Strategies in Targeting Firms for Social Change

    By: Charles Eesley, K. A. DeCelles and Michael Lenox
    • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Physical and Situational Inequality on Airplanes Predict Air Rage

    By: K. A. DeCelles and Michael I. Norton
    • Academy of Management Journal

    It's Not Easy Being Green: The Role of Self-Evaluations in Explaining Support of Environmental Issues

    By: Scott Sonenshein, K. A. DeCelles and Jane E. Dutton
More from the Authors
  • Through the Mud or in the Boardroom: Examining Activist Types and Their Strategies in Targeting Firms for Social Change By: Charles Eesley, K. A. DeCelles and Michael Lenox
  • Physical and Situational Inequality on Airplanes Predict Air Rage By: K. A. DeCelles and Michael I. Norton
  • It's Not Easy Being Green: The Role of Self-Evaluations in Explaining Support of Environmental Issues By: Scott Sonenshein, K. A. DeCelles and Jane E. Dutton
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College