Post by High Priestess on Dec 11, 2015 16:28:52 GMT
See this article from the Business INsider:
www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-has-a-race-problem-with-names-2015-12
and:
www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/12/11/this-new-tool-helps-airbnb-hosts-to-stop-being-racist/
and:
fox40.com/2015/12/12/airbnb-hosts-found-to-discriminate-against-guests-with-black-names/
and:
www.vox.com/2015/12/14/10113432/airbnb-sharing-economy-racism
and
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3359244/Airbnb-hosts-racist-reject-guests-African-American-sounding-names-Harvard-study-finds.html
(There were many more articles on this issue than other news articles about Airbnb )
A new study by Harvard professors suggests that having an African-American name makes it harder to rent a place on Airbnb.
Renters with white sounding names booked successfully 50 percent of the time, compared to 42 percent for African American names, according to the working paper.
It doesn't matter if the host was white or African American, if they were sharing the place or not, or whether it was expensive or cheap. On all levels, African-American sounding names had a harder time booking a room.
"On the whole, our analysis suggests a need for caution: while information can facilitate transactions, it also facilitates discrimination," wrote the three researchers.
To study discrimination, the authors sent 6,400 requests from profiles of fake Airbnb guests, using distinctly African-American or distinctly White names, and without profile photos. The researchers requested bookings in five cities — Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C — through Airbnb, and found that the African-American sounding names were accepted less frequently across the board.
Airbnb's reliance on real names open the door for some discrimination on the part of the hosts who get to decide who stays in their rental, the Harvard researchers argue.
Most marketplaces, such as eBay or Expedia, either allow screen names or allow anonymous activity. For Expedia, there is no one screening a name to decide yes or no. On eBay or Amazon marketplace, you can use any name you want.
It's a problem that becomes more alarming given Airbnb's growth rate. The researchers created a Chrome browser plug-in to mask identifying information on the Airbnb site and has encouraged the home-rental site to adopt the same stance. Having more Instant Book properties, where like an Expedia the guest doesn't need approval from the home owner before booking, would also help close the gap.
An Airbnb spokesperson told Business Insider that they are already in touch with the authors of the study to work together with them.
"We are committed to making Airbnb one of the most open, trusted, diverse, transparent communities in the world. We recognize that bias and discrimination are significant challenges, and we welcome the opportunity to work with anyone that can help us reduce potential discrimination in the Airbnb community," the spokesperson said.
This is not the first time Airbnb has been accused of having a racism problem.
In 2014, a Harvard study also involving Edelman found the site's large photos of hosts' houses made it easy to determine their race and encouraged bias.
My two cents:
As is the case with many social issues, they are not unique to Airbnb.
A couple questions about the study itself is -- first, to create 20 "Fake" profiles and to send out 6400 "fake" inquiries, is a massive violation of Airbnb terms and conditions. One is not allowed to use the system to send inquiries which are not legitimate. Nor is one permitted to create fake profiles. To do this study, not only were all the inquiries phony, but apparently, (since the names were made up) all the profiles and "guests" were phony and non-existent as well. Therefore, it should be prohibited to even do a "study" such as this -- and the massive abuse of the system involved in this study may end up inviting yet more abuse and other "studies."
Of the study itself -- it makes much of names, but what about photographs? WEre no photographs of these fake guests provided to the hosts? ANother point that might be considered-- people with ethnic names, "black names", are not necessarily representative of an entire group of people. That is to say, there is something a little offensive about suggesting that someone named "Brent Baker" is more likely to be white than black. The presumptions of this study seem to "limit" Black/African-American individuals, and suggest that those with "black names" are representative of all Black/African-American individuals, and I question that presumption, which to me actually seems a bit racist. In fact I think there may be a class issue that is represented in this study, more than a racial one -- my guess would be that names like "Tanisha" and "LaToya" are more suggestive of the class of the individual, whereas "Laurie", "Kristen", "Brent" and "Brad" are not. ANy good researcher knows that you cannot do a serious study if you have more than one variable involved.
I think there are some very serious problems with the recommendations of this study, such as, that guest names should not be provided to hosts, and that guests should be "anonymous" when applying to stay with a host. This is just very offensive to me, and it goes against everything we as hosts have been pushing for, in terms of asking guests to be MORE open with us and provide more info than they do initially, rather than LESS information!!. Are the researchers suggesting that hosts can't even be trusted with the guest's real name???! The nannying involved here is over the top. It is also ludicrous, when you think that in order to do an actual background check or credit report on anyone, or have them fill out a rental application (which some hosts do and/or are required to do for their home insurer) one absolutely must have the guest's full real name.
ALso very offensive is the study's conclusion that more hosts should use "instant book" so that they lose control over who stays at their home!! Sit down!! Shut up!!!
The authors of the study seem to fail to recognize that it is quite legal to discriminate on any basis when renting out a space in one's own home, and while it is certainly to be hoped that individuals who host would not close the doors to any entire group of people, ultimately we have to recognize that after all it is their home we are talking about, and people absolutely should have control about who they welcome into their own home. You cannot ask people to be uncomfortable in their own home, in order that their guest can be comfortable or feel appeased in their anxiety about discrimination. It's also kind of stupid to suggest that a guest is going to feel comfortable staying in a home where the host is uncomfortable with them. I am very opposed to government or corporate intrusion into this realm.
See this thread about issues of discrimination and the law: globalhosting.freeforums.net/thread/1005/disability-discrimination
www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-has-a-race-problem-with-names-2015-12
and:
www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/12/11/this-new-tool-helps-airbnb-hosts-to-stop-being-racist/
and:
fox40.com/2015/12/12/airbnb-hosts-found-to-discriminate-against-guests-with-black-names/
and:
www.vox.com/2015/12/14/10113432/airbnb-sharing-economy-racism
and
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3359244/Airbnb-hosts-racist-reject-guests-African-American-sounding-names-Harvard-study-finds.html
(There were many more articles on this issue than other news articles about Airbnb )
A new study by Harvard professors suggests that having an African-American name makes it harder to rent a place on Airbnb.
Renters with white sounding names booked successfully 50 percent of the time, compared to 42 percent for African American names, according to the working paper.
It doesn't matter if the host was white or African American, if they were sharing the place or not, or whether it was expensive or cheap. On all levels, African-American sounding names had a harder time booking a room.
"On the whole, our analysis suggests a need for caution: while information can facilitate transactions, it also facilitates discrimination," wrote the three researchers.
To study discrimination, the authors sent 6,400 requests from profiles of fake Airbnb guests, using distinctly African-American or distinctly White names, and without profile photos. The researchers requested bookings in five cities — Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C — through Airbnb, and found that the African-American sounding names were accepted less frequently across the board.
Airbnb's reliance on real names open the door for some discrimination on the part of the hosts who get to decide who stays in their rental, the Harvard researchers argue.
Most marketplaces, such as eBay or Expedia, either allow screen names or allow anonymous activity. For Expedia, there is no one screening a name to decide yes or no. On eBay or Amazon marketplace, you can use any name you want.
It's a problem that becomes more alarming given Airbnb's growth rate. The researchers created a Chrome browser plug-in to mask identifying information on the Airbnb site and has encouraged the home-rental site to adopt the same stance. Having more Instant Book properties, where like an Expedia the guest doesn't need approval from the home owner before booking, would also help close the gap.
An Airbnb spokesperson told Business Insider that they are already in touch with the authors of the study to work together with them.
"We are committed to making Airbnb one of the most open, trusted, diverse, transparent communities in the world. We recognize that bias and discrimination are significant challenges, and we welcome the opportunity to work with anyone that can help us reduce potential discrimination in the Airbnb community," the spokesperson said.
This is not the first time Airbnb has been accused of having a racism problem.
In 2014, a Harvard study also involving Edelman found the site's large photos of hosts' houses made it easy to determine their race and encouraged bias.
My two cents:
As is the case with many social issues, they are not unique to Airbnb.
A couple questions about the study itself is -- first, to create 20 "Fake" profiles and to send out 6400 "fake" inquiries, is a massive violation of Airbnb terms and conditions. One is not allowed to use the system to send inquiries which are not legitimate. Nor is one permitted to create fake profiles. To do this study, not only were all the inquiries phony, but apparently, (since the names were made up) all the profiles and "guests" were phony and non-existent as well. Therefore, it should be prohibited to even do a "study" such as this -- and the massive abuse of the system involved in this study may end up inviting yet more abuse and other "studies."
Of the study itself -- it makes much of names, but what about photographs? WEre no photographs of these fake guests provided to the hosts? ANother point that might be considered-- people with ethnic names, "black names", are not necessarily representative of an entire group of people. That is to say, there is something a little offensive about suggesting that someone named "Brent Baker" is more likely to be white than black. The presumptions of this study seem to "limit" Black/African-American individuals, and suggest that those with "black names" are representative of all Black/African-American individuals, and I question that presumption, which to me actually seems a bit racist. In fact I think there may be a class issue that is represented in this study, more than a racial one -- my guess would be that names like "Tanisha" and "LaToya" are more suggestive of the class of the individual, whereas "Laurie", "Kristen", "Brent" and "Brad" are not. ANy good researcher knows that you cannot do a serious study if you have more than one variable involved.
I think there are some very serious problems with the recommendations of this study, such as, that guest names should not be provided to hosts, and that guests should be "anonymous" when applying to stay with a host. This is just very offensive to me, and it goes against everything we as hosts have been pushing for, in terms of asking guests to be MORE open with us and provide more info than they do initially, rather than LESS information!!. Are the researchers suggesting that hosts can't even be trusted with the guest's real name???! The nannying involved here is over the top. It is also ludicrous, when you think that in order to do an actual background check or credit report on anyone, or have them fill out a rental application (which some hosts do and/or are required to do for their home insurer) one absolutely must have the guest's full real name.
ALso very offensive is the study's conclusion that more hosts should use "instant book" so that they lose control over who stays at their home!! Sit down!! Shut up!!!
The authors of the study seem to fail to recognize that it is quite legal to discriminate on any basis when renting out a space in one's own home, and while it is certainly to be hoped that individuals who host would not close the doors to any entire group of people, ultimately we have to recognize that after all it is their home we are talking about, and people absolutely should have control about who they welcome into their own home. You cannot ask people to be uncomfortable in their own home, in order that their guest can be comfortable or feel appeased in their anxiety about discrimination. It's also kind of stupid to suggest that a guest is going to feel comfortable staying in a home where the host is uncomfortable with them. I am very opposed to government or corporate intrusion into this realm.
See this thread about issues of discrimination and the law: globalhosting.freeforums.net/thread/1005/disability-discrimination
