Frontiers: Discrimination Against Femininity in Headshots: A Field Experiment with AI-Enabled Controllable Stimuli Generation

References

• Abadie A, Athey S, Imbens GW, Wooldridge JM (2023) When should you adjust standard errors for clustering? Quart. J. Econom. 138(1):1–35.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Acquisti A, Fong C (2020) An experiment in hiring discrimination via online social networks. Management Sci. 66(3):1005–1024.Link, Google Scholar
• Athey S, Karlan D, Palikot E, Yuan Y (2025) Smiles in profiles: Improving fairness and efficiency using estimates of user preferences in online marketplaces. NBER Working Paper No. 30633, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
• Becker GS (1957) The Economics of Discrimination (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).Google Scholar
• Bertrand M, Duflo E (2017) Field experiments on discrimination. Banerjee AV, Duflo E, eds. Handbook of Economic Field Experiments, vol. 1 (North-Holland, Amsterdam), 309–393.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Bertrand M, Chugh D, Mullainathan S (2005) Implicit discrimination. Amer. Econom. Rev. 95(2):94–98.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Braun M, de Langhe B, Puntoni S, Schwartz EM (2024) Leveraging digital advertising platforms for consumer research. J. Consumer Res. 51(1):119–128.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Brock JM, De Haas R (2023) Discriminatory lending: Evidence from bankers in the lab. Amer. Econom. J. Appl. Econom. 15(2):31–68.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Busse MR, Israeli A, Zettelmeyer F (2017) Repairing the damage: The effect of price knowledge and gender on auto repair price quotes. J. Marketing Res. 54(1):75–95.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Chan J, Wang J (2018) Hiring preferences in online labor markets: Evidence of a female hiring bias. Management Sci. 64(7):2973–2994.Link, Google Scholar
• Coffman KB, Exley CL, Niederle M (2021) The role of beliefs in driving gender discrimination. Management Sci. 67(6):3551–3569.Link, Google Scholar
• Cui R, Li J, Zhang DJ (2020) Reducing discrimination with reviews in the sharing economy: Evidence from field experiments on Airbnb. Management Sci. 66(3):1071–1094.Link, Google Scholar
• DeBruine LM, Jones BC, Smith FG, Little AC (2010) Are attractive men’s faces masculine or feminine? The importance of controlling confounds in face stimuli. J. Experiment. Psych. Human Perception Performance 36(3):751–758.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Dew R, Ansari A, Toubia O (2022) Letting logos speak: Leveraging multiview representation learning for data-driven branding and logo design. Marketing Sci. 41(2):401–425.Link, Google Scholar
• Evsyukova Y, Rusche F, Mill W (2025) LinkedOut? A field experiment on discrimination in job network formation. Quart. J. Econom. 140(1):283–334.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Feng X, Zhang S, Liu X, Srinivasan K, Lamberton C (2025) An AI method to score celebrity visual potential. J. Marketing Res. 62(5):757–775.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Fong C, Grimmer J (2023) Causal inference with latent treatments. Amer. J. Political Sci. 67(2):374–389.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Heilman ME, Caleo S, Manzi F (2024) Women at work: Pathways from gender stereotypes to gender bias and discrimination. Annual Rev. Organ. Psych. Organ. Behav. 11(1):165–192.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Hester N, Jones BC, Hehman E (2021) Perceived femininity and masculinity contribute independently to facial impressions. J. Experiment. Psych. General 150(6):1147–1164.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Karras T, Laine S, Aittala M, Hellsten J, Lehtinen J, Aila T (2020) Analyzing and improving the image quality of StyleGAN. Proc. 2020 IEEE/CVF Conf. Comput. Vision Pattern Recognition (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ), 8107–8116.Google Scholar
• Kelley E, Lane G, Pecenco M, Rubin E (2026) Customer discrimination in the workplace: Evidence from online sales. J. Labor Econom. 44(3):855–889.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Kline P, Rose EK, Walters CR (2022) Systemic discrimination among large U.S. employers. Quart. J. Econom. 137(4):1963–2036.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lambrecht A, Tucker C (2013) When does retargeting work? Information specificity in online advertising. J. Marketing Res. 50(5):561–576.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lambrecht A, Tucker C (2019) Algorithmic bias? An empirical study of apparent gender-based discrimination in the display of STEM career ads. Management Sci. 65(7):2966–2981.Link, Google Scholar
• Liang H, Perona P, Balakrishnan G (2023) Benchmarking algorithmic bias in face recognition: An experimental approach using synthetic faces and human evaluation. Proc. 2023 IEEE/CVF Internat. Conf. Comput. Vision (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ), 4954–4964.Google Scholar
• Ludwig J, Mullainathan S (2024) Machine learning as a tool for hypothesis generation. Quart. J. Econom. 139(2):751–827.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Milkman KL, Akinola M, Chugh D (2015) What happens before? A field experiment exploring how pay and representation differentially shape bias on the pathway into organizations. J. Appl. Psych. 100(6):1678–1712.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Nakamura K, Watanabe K (2020) A new data-driven mathematical model dissociates attractiveness from sexual dimorphism of human faces. Sci. Rep. 10(1):16588.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Nightingale SJ, Farid H (2022) AI-synthesized faces are indistinguishable from real faces and more trustworthy. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 119(8):e2120481119.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Oh D, Buck EA, Todorov A (2019) Revealing hidden gender biases in competence impressions of faces. Psych. Sci. 30(1):65–79.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Oh D, Dotsch R, Porter J, Todorov A (2020) Gender biases in impressions from faces: Empirical studies and computational models. J. Experiment. Psych. General 149(2):323–342.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Olivola CY, Todorov A (2010) Elected in 100 milliseconds: Appearance-based trait inferences and voting. J. Nonverbal Behav. 34(2):83–110.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Ozturk OC, He C, Chintagunta PK (2024) Frontiers: Inequalities in dealers’ interest rate markups? A gender- and race-based analysis. Marketing Sci. 43(1):20–32.Link, Google Scholar
• Paluck EL, Porat R, Clark CS, Green DP (2021) Prejudice reduction: Progress and challenges. Annual Rev. Psych. 72(1):533–560.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Patashnik O, Wu Z, Shechtman E, Cohen-Or D, Lischinski D (2021) StyleCLIP: Text-driven manipulation of StyleGAN imagery. Proc. 2021 IEEE/CVF Internat. Conf. Comput. Vision (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ), 2065–2074.Google Scholar
• Perrett DI, Lee KJ, Penton-Voak I, Rowland D, Yoshikawa S, Burt DM, Henzi SP, Castles DL, Akamatsu S (1998) Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness. Nature 394(6696):884–887.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Peterson JC, Uddenberg S, Griffiths TL, Todorov A, Suchow JW (2022) Deep models of superficial face judgments. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 119(17):e2115228119.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Proserpio D, Troncoso I, Valsesia F (2021) Does gender matter? The effect of management responses on reviewing behavior. Marketing Sci. 40(6):1199–1213.Abstract, Google Scholar
• Said CP, Todorov A (2011) A statistical model of facial attractiveness. Psych. Sci. 22(9):1183–1190.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Scott IM, Clark AP, Josephson SC, Boyette AH, Cuthill IC, Fried RL, Gibson MA, et al. (2014) Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111(40):14388–14393.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Sisodia A, Burnap A, Kumar V (2025) Generative interpretable visual design: Using disentanglement for visual conjoint analysis. J. Marketing Res. 62(3):405–428.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Sutherland CAM, Young AW, Mootz CA, Oldmeadow JA (2015) Face gender and stereotypicality influence facial trait evaluation: Counter-stereotypical female faces are negatively evaluated. British J. Psych. 106(2):186–208.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Todorov A, Olivola CY, Dotsch R, Mende-Siedlecki P (2015) Social attributions from faces: Determinants, consequences, accuracy, and functional significance. Annual Rev. Psych. 66(1):519–545.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Troncoso I, Luo L (2023) Look the part? The role of profile pictures in online labor markets. Marketing Sci. 42(6):1080–1100.Link, Google Scholar
• Wu Z, Lischinski D, Shechtman E (2021) StyleSpace analysis: Disentangled controls for StyleGAN image generation. Proc. 2021 IEEE/CVF Conf. Comput. Vision Pattern Recognition (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ), 12858–12867.Google Scholar
• Xiao L, Ding M (2014) Just the faces: Exploring the effects of facial features in print advertising. Marketing Sci. 33(3):338–352.Link, Google Scholar
• Zhang S, Friedman EMS, Srinivasan K, Dhar R, Zhang X (2025) Serving with a smile on Airbnb: Analyzing the economic returns and behavioral underpinnings of the host’s smile. J. Consumer Res. 51(6):1073–1097.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Zietsch BP, Lee AJ, Sherlock JM, Jern P (2015) Variation in women’s preferences regarding male facial masculinity is better explained by genetic differences than by previously identified context-dependent effects. Psych. Sci. 26(9):1440–1448.Crossref, Google Scholar