Résumés identical with regard to the fictitious applicants

In 2004, researchers Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan sent fictitious résumés in response to employers’ job postings. The researchers made the résumés identical with regard to the fictitious applicants’ qualifications but altered the names on the résumés to reflect male versus female names and “white-sounding” versus “African American-sounding” names. They found that résumés with “white names,” such as Emily and Greg, received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews than did résumés with “black names,” such as Tyrone and Lakeisha. The results of this study indicate that employment decisions of some employers might not be and could indicate illegal discrimination based on .