Eagle Researchers Examine Gender, Racial Bias in Aviation Nadine Ragbir ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY MICHAELA JARVIS WITH EMBRY‑RIDDLE’S NEWS TEAM
As the aviation industry strives to diversify its workforce, COAS researchers just published a paper demonstrating the bias faced by aspiring female and minority commercial pilots.
T he research, published in Technology in Society , showed that consumers and even other pilots respond more favorably to white male pilots than female and minority pilots. These findings represent a scientific look at consumers’ perceptions of pilot quality based on their gender or race and could provide strong guidance to the aviation industry. Human Factors Ph.D. student Nadine Ragbir, the lead author of the paper, said the most valuable part of the research was demonstrating that implicit, or unconscious, biases exist. “While some people know they are being biased or prejudiced against an individual, others may not even know they feel
that way,” said Ragbir. “Just being able to make people aware that there are unconscious biases that could influence their thoughts and actions is a step forward.” The experiment involved showing photographs of female and male pilots of various races to participants, then asking them to rate how well they thought the pilots would perform. Respondents gave higher ratings to white male pilots. Other students who worked on the research, which was funded internally by COAS’ Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology, included Bradley Baugh, Mattie Milner (now graduated), Madhur Gupta, Drishti Valecha, Karla Candelaria-Oquendo and John Capps .
10 | College of Arts & Sciences
(Photo: Pexels-Ekky Wicaksono)
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