Ragbir, who developed a childhood interest in aviation when her paratrooper uncle taught her about different kinds of aircraft, earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Human Factors . She said the topic of the research came about through collaboration, while the authors discussed a type of software tool used in behavioral research that can reveal implicit bias based on the participants’ response times. Basically, response times are longer when implicit bias is involved, because participants are reluctant to blatantly admit to biased responses and tend to take more time to consider. “Being in a school centered around aviation, we could not help but ask ourselves if these biases exist in airline passengers and pilots alike,” Ragbir said. She added that diversity and inclusion programs would be her first recommendation for the aviation industry. Despite the pandemic, air travel is projected to expand over the coming years, and with a large percentage of the industry’s workforce reaching retirement age, a shortage of aviation professionals is predicted, according to Dr. Stephen Rice, professor of Human Factors at Embry-Riddle. The research paper pointed out that bias could deprive the industry of the best job candidates.
“One of the main goals in hiring is to recruit and onboard the most qualified candidates,” the publication in Technology in Society read. “Potential employees are often unintentionally under-evaluated due to biases, and specific groups could be unfairly kept out of the cockpit and better candidates excluded.” The fact that pilots themselves demonstrated bias against female and minority pilots was of particular concern, Rice said. “Those pilots may be in positions of power one day to make hiring choices,” he said. The aviation industry needs to be aware that this bias exists because they need to make sure their hiring process is fair to women and minorities. They need to do whatever it takes to help women and minorities overcome these societal problems. Dr. Stephen Rice | Professor of Human Factors
Nadine Ragbir
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