Science

In a study of an online gig-economy platform, Yale SOM’s Tristan Botelho and his co-authors found that the ubiquitous five-star rating system could subtly propagate discrimination. But they also found a surprisingly simple fix: switching to a two-point scale (thumbs up or thumbs down) eliminated subtle racial bias in customer ratings of gig workers, which in turn equalized wages between White and non-White workers.‌‌