Open AccessDual-anonymization Yields Promising Results for Reducing Gender Bias: A Naturalistic Field Experiment of Applications for Hubble Space Telescope Time
Author(s) -
Stefanie K. Johnson,
Jessica Kirk
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
publications of the astronomical society of the pacific
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.294
H-Index - 172
eISSN - 1538-3873
pISSN - 0004-6280
DOI - 10.1088/1538-3873/ab6ce0
Subject(s) - hubble space telescope , dual (grammatical number) , gender bias , computer science , field (mathematics) , psychology , astrophysics , physics , social psychology , mathematics , galaxy , art , literature , pure mathematics
Using archival data, we examine the effects of the Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee ( HST TAC)'s decision to adopt a dual- rather than single-anonymous review process. The change involved removing, to varying degrees, information about the Principal Investigator (PI) with the goal of reducing bias against women. Proposals led by female PIs were significantly more likely to be accepted in the five cycles following the changes compared to the 11 cycles using a single-anonymous review system. Taking a closer look at why these changes emerged, we examined data at the reviewer-level in the cycle immediately preceding the change compared to three of the cycles after the change. We found that male reviewers rated female PIs significantly worse than they rated male PIs before, but not after, dual-anonymization was adopted.