Telling Talent: Essays on Discrimination and Promotion Contests

Abstract

Many of our interactions are shaped by the beliefs we hold about the people we interact with. Because of this, we often try to gather information about others. This information shapes our beliefs, which then inform the decisions we make. For example, believing that one group is inherently worse than another might lead us to discriminate against that group. Similarly, believing that one employee is better than another might lead a manager to promote that employee over the other. This thesis deals with how people collect and interpret information about others, broadly speaking, and applies this to discrimination and promotion contests.