Moa Bursell

Stockholm University | SU · Department of Sociology

Implicit bias reduction has become an increasingly popular feature of so-called ‘diversity training’ in both public and private organizations. It remains popular, despite a lack of robust evidence suggesting that it is possible to accomplish lasting changes to individual implicit bias. In addition, previous research relies almost entirely on labora...

In recent years, both private and public organizations across contexts have begun implementing AI technologies in their recruitment processes. This transition is typically justified by improved efficiency as well as more objective, performance-based ranking, and inclusive selection of job candidates. However, this rapid development has also raised...

Advanced labor markets are typically stratified by origin with a majority ethnic group occupying more desirable (high-skilled) positions and subordinated ethnic minorities occupying less desirable (low-skilled) positions. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether employer recruitment choices reinforce these patterns. This would be the case if...

This article evaluates Andreas Wimmer’s theory of ethnic boundary making by applying it to the maintenance of Jewish ethnic identification in Sweden, as expressed in interviews with Swedish Jews. Wimmer proposes that ethnic conflict routinizes and entrenches perceptions of ethnic difference; we argue that the antisemitic persecutions of the twentie...

Psychological dual-process theory has become increasingly popular among sociologists. The dual-process framework accounts for two types of thinking; a fast, associative, automatic or subconscious “System 1 thinking”, and a slow, propositional and reflective “System 2 thinking”. The insight that the former can also be empirically studied by sociolog...

In “Status Characteristics, Implicit Bias, and the Production of Racial Inequality,” Melamed, Munn, Barry, Montgomery, and Okuwobi present an innovative and intriguing study on social influence, status beliefs, and implicit racial bias. To capture status-based expectancies, the authors measure implicit racial status beliefs using an Implicit Associ...

While discrimination in the labour market, housing and consumer domains has been studied extensively, discrimination against minorities by public institutions has thus far been a somewhat neglected issue. Still, it has a stratifying potential similar to that of labour market discrimination; public institutions distribute both common resources, serv...

There is widespread segregation between workplaces along ethnic lines. We expand upon previous research on segregation and social influence by testing the effect of the latter on personal diversity preferences, specifically in employees’ selection into hypothetical workplaces. In a survey study with 364 European American respondents in three waves,...

Ethno-racial workplace segregation increases already existing ethno-racial inequality. While previous research has identified discriminatory employers as drivers of workplace segregation, this study addresses the role of the employees. Sociological and social psychological theory suggest that people prefer to surround themselves with people who pos...

Ethnic relations and nationalist sentiments in Sweden have primarily evolved around two distinct phenomena: relations between native ethnic groups and relations between the dominant ethnic group and immigrant groups. Sweden is a multicultural society where ethnic Swedes constitute the ethnic majority. There are five national minority groups: Swedis...

We examine differences in the intensity of employer stereotypes of men and women with Arabic names in Sweden by testing how much work experience is needed to eliminate the disadvantage of having an Arabic name on job applications. Employers are first sent curriculum vitaes (CVs) of equal merit in a field experiment setup. Arabic-named CVs are there...

Scholars have documented ethnic and gender discrimination across labour markets since the 1970s by using field experiments (correspondence tests) in which pairs of equally qualified applications are sent to employers with job openings. In these experiments, discrimination is measured by documenting group differences in callbacks. However, the gende...

Research has shown that individuals in Sweden with foreign-sounding surnames who take on more Swedish-sounding or neutral surnames have a positive earnings progression compared to individuals who keep their foreign-sounding names. This article explores the strategies underlying these surname changes. I draw on forty-five interviews from a populatio...

We examine differences in the intensity of employer priors against men and women with Arabic names in Sweden by testing how much more work experience is needed to eliminate the disadvantage of having an Arabic name on job applications. Employers are first sent CVs of equal merits in a field-experiment setup. Arabic-named CVs are thereafter enhanced...

We examine how much more work experience is needed to eliminate call-back gaps between groups. To assess the gap between job candi-dates with Swedish and Arabic names, employers are first sent CVs of equal merits. Arabic-named CVs are then enhanced with more work experience to measure the strength of negative employer priors. The call-back gap disa...

Using a two stage correspondence test methodology, this study tests employer priors against job-applicants with Arabic names compared to job-applicants with Swedish names. In the first stage, employers are sent CVs of equal observable quality. Thereafter, in the second stage, the CVs with Arabic names are given an advantage of, on average, two more...

This paper provides evidence of extensive ethnic discrimination in the Swedish labour market. A field experiment (correspondence test) that tests employer discrimination has been performed. Pairs of equally merited applications has been sent to job openings, one with a Swedish sounding name and one with a foreign sounding name. Discrimination is me...