Bias in evaluating code contributions
summary
Claim: inferred race and ethnicity from names using NamePrism on about 2.5 million pull requests across 46,000 GitHub projects yields concrete disparities. The dataset maps ~493,000 developers and shows less than 10 percent non‑white contributors. Regression controlling for experience finds Hispanic contributors ~6% lower odds and Asian/Pacific Islander ~10% lower odds of acceptance; same‑ethnicity integrators dramatically raise acceptance (Black contributors up to nine times higher). Authors release data and scripts and recommend using names to proactively support diverse contributors.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00BIAS IN EVALUATING CODE CONTRIBUTIONS IDENTIFYING DIVERSITY IN ONLINE GROUPS AND CREATING AWARENESS
- 0:58BUT, DIVERSITY ASPECTS MIGHT AFFECT THE ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS
- 2:09INTEGRATORS' PERCEPTION OF RACE AND ETHNICITY OF SUBMITTERS MIGHT ACTIVATES WHATEVER BIASES THE INTEGRATORS HAVE ABOUT PEOPLE WITH THE SAME RACE AND ETHNICITY OF SUBMITTERS
- 2:59A LARGE SCALE STUDY ABOUT THE PERCEPTION OF RACE AND ETHNICITY IN PULL REQUEST EVALUATION
- 3:3557.2% OF GITHUB DEVELOPERS HAVE A PERCEPTIBLE RACE AND ETHNICITY, BUT 42.8% DEVELOPERS ARE CLASSIFIED AS UNKNOWN
- 5:18DOES PERCEPTIBLE RACE AND ETHNICITY HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS? Dependent
- 5:52THE RELATIONSHIP OF HISPANIC AND API DEVELOPERS ON PULL REQUEST ACCEPTANCE IS LOWER WHEN COMPARED TO PERCEPTIBLE WHITE DEVELOPERS
- 6:45NON-WHITE DEVELOPERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO GET THEIR PR ACCEPTED WHEN THE INTEGRATOR IS FROM THEIR SAME RACE AND ETHNICITY (COMPARED TO PERCEPTIBLE WHITE DEVELOPERS)
- 8:39SO WHAT NOW? AUTHOR BLINDED EVALUATION?
- 8:50MAYBE? INSTEAD WE CAN ACTIVELY SUPPORT A DIVERSE GROUP OF CONTRIBUTORS.
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