A Way to Detect Bias

October 2015

This will come as a surprise to a lot of people, but in some cases
it's possible to detect bias in a selection process without knowing
anything about the applicant pool. Which is exciting because among
other things it means third parties can use this technique to detect
bias whether those doing the selecting want them to or not.

You can use this technique whenever (a) you have at least
a random sample of the applicants that were selected, (b) their
subsequent performance is measured, and (c) the groups of
applicants you're comparing have roughly equal distribution of ability.

How does it work? Think about what it means to be biased. What
it means for a selection process to be biased against applicants
of type x is that it's harder for them to make it through. Which
means applicants of type x have to be better to get selected than
applicants not of type x.
[1