Revealing and Mitigating Racial Bias and Discrimination in Financial Services
通过三项实地研究和一项实验室实验，揭示了金融贷款服务中针对黑人客户的种族歧视，并发现当黑人客户显示较高社会经济地位或其公司法律结构更复杂时，歧视会减轻。
Three field studies and a laboratory experiment reveal racial discrimination in financial loan services. The results show that (1) service employees provide Black (vs. White) customers with inferior service outcomes (i.e., products offered), (2) Black (vs. White) customers experience inferior service processes (employees’ warmth/competence), and (3) Black (vs. White) customers report lower loyalty intentions toward the firm. Such discrimination is not only morally wrong and illegal; it is also bad for business. Therefore, the authors also show when and why racial discrimination is mitigated: namely, when Black customers signal higher socioeconomic status, or a Black customer's company (for which they seek the loan) has a more complex and sophisticated legal structure (corporation vs. sole proprietorship). Exploring this mitigation effect further, the authors show that a more sophisticated business structure increases the employee's trust toward Black customers, which reduces the perceived default likelihood and increases the likelihood to offer a loan; yet, this process does not emerge for White applicants. The findings point to managerial and policy implications to mitigate racial discrimination.