The Privilege of Informality: Differential Use and Penalties of Formal Cues Across Gender and Race

In recent years, workplaces have become more informal in both dress and communication style. On the surface, it seems that informality at work makes the workplace more inclusive. However, psychologist Stav Atir and organizational behavior scholar Hannah Birnbaum show that minoritized professionals rely more on formal cues (e.g., professional titles) to establish legitimacy, and that the loss of formality therefore operates as an unrecognized form of professional privilege. Three research questions guide the project: (1) Is informality enacted to different degrees along gender and racial lines? (2) Are those who enact formality penalized, especially under informal workplace norms? (3) Are minoritized individuals penalized more? Across two large datasets and physician interviews, women were consistently more likely than men to display “Dr.” or other titles, often to pre-empt role misidentification. Yet, two online studies show that those who express a preference for formal address were judged as less warm, competent, and self-confident, especially when the cultural norms were informal. The investigators will examine the effects of informality in two complementary studies. The first study analyzes 6,185 doctorate-holding attendees at the 2021 Academy of Management conference, comparing use of title in name badge by perceived race and gender. Study 2 is a reverse-audit field experiment with 1,600 real job seekers to examine application rates and message tone.