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Discrimination, Digital Markets, and Design Reimagining the role of design in the fight against discrimination

Discrimination, Digitial Markets, and Design

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Discrimination,

Digital Markets, and

Design

R e i m a g i n i n g t h e r o l e o f d e s i g n i n t h e f i g h t

a g a i n s t d i s c r i m i n a t i o n

• Discrimination is occuring

in digital marketplaces

The Argument + Background

• Intentional design can

combat discrimination

• We can do better

Distinction

UI Design Process

Design

Algorithmic

Design

Title Name

Sweeney: traditionally black names in Google were more likely to produce adds offering to investigate possible arrest records

• Examples: eBay,

Amazon, Priceline

• Relative anonymity

• Users can negotiate

without identifying

information

• Reviews began to

proliferate

1st

Evolution

2nd

• Examples: Uber,

Airbnb, Etsy

• Zero anonymity:

users create profiles

with highly granular

data

Growth

• Uber: 2 Billion rides as of July 2016

(Wired)

• Didi: 1.43 Billion rides in 2015 alone

(Wired)

• Airbnb: 3000 listings in 2009, 2.3

million in 2016

THREATS

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• “We bet our whole company on the

hope that, with the right design, people

would be willing to overcome the

stranger danger bias.” – Joe Gebbia

Trust

Forthcoming: Ahuja

and Lyons

• Guests with traditionally

black names in the U.S.

are 16% less likely to be

accepted on Airbnb

January 2016: Edelman,

Luca, and Svirsky

• Users start complaining on

social media about

experiences of

discrimination + uptick in

news coverage

#AirbnbWhileBlack

October 2016: Ge, Knittel,

MacKenzie, and Zoepf

• Male same-sex couples in

Dublin, Ireland are 13%

less likely to be accepted

on Airbnb

• Seattle: longer wait times

(up to 35% longer)

• 2x chance of cancellation

for traditionally black

names

Evidence of Discrimination: Airbnb

Edelman, Luca,

and Svirsky

Ahuja & Lyons

Edelman, Luca, and Svirsky

Design

Treatment

Results

Implications

Fake profiles are created with consistent

characteristics, randomely selected hosts to recieve

message from guest with a traditionally black name

Field experiment involving 6,400 Airbnb listings

across 5 American cities

Guests with traditionally black names were

16% less likely to get accepted. Robust to

a variety of characteristics

Compared to an online hotel

website which has a

discrimination rate of 0%

Ahuja & Lyons

Design

Treatment

Results

Implications

Fake profiles are created with consistent

characteristics, randomely selected hosts to recieve

message from guest that self-identified being in a

same-sex relationship

Field experiment involving 800 Airbnb listings in

Dublin, Ireland

Male guests that self-identified as being in

a same-sex relationship were 13% less

likely to be accepted

Compared to an online hotel

website which has a

discrimination rate of 0%

What’s the

problem?

Picture: pre-

transaction, guest

pictures can lead to

rejections based on

implicit or explicity bias

Name: pre-

transaction, guest

names can lead to

rejections based on

implicit or explicity bias

Optionality: pre-

transaction, host

decision making

leaves the platform

vulnerable to

discrimination

TEXT

IMAGE IMAGE

HOME

SLIDER

FOOTER

Instant Book!

Airbnb doesn’t release

statistics about the # of

hosts who have

“Instant Book”

Globally• Financial incentives for instant

book option

• Behavioral nudges to set instant

book (default option, etc.)

• Remove optionality entirely

Significant Opportunity

Percentage of Airbnb

hosts that have the

“Instant Book” feature

in Ahuja & Lyons

Dublin Sample

Percentage of Airbnb

hosts that have the

“Instant Book” in the

Dublin market

Dublin Airbnb Market

16%

?

14%

INFORMATION

• Withold potentially

sensitive user

information

• Airbnb vs. Homeaway

AUTOMATION COMMUNICATION

Key Principles

• Instant booking, timing

of personal information

in transactions

• Uber vs. Lyft

• Smarter prompting and

nudges could increase

the salience of

potential bias

Platforms exist within a larger social context!

Fixing Discrimination in Online Marketplaces: Ray Fisman and Michael Luca

• Discrimination is occuring

in digital marketplaces

Convinced?

• Intentional design can

combat discrimination

• We can do better

Thank You about.me/rishiahuja

facebook.com/rahuja360

[email protected]

@RN_Ahuja

Linkedin.com/in/rishiahuja