this Wasn’t the Intent of the Study
A recent study was done at Carnegie Mellon University, with the purpose of understanding how a person’s interactions with the Google ads settings and their behaviors impacted the specific kinds of ads that they were shown. They were surprised at their findings, which hinted at something that, whether intentional or accidental, was fairly sinister. As it turns out, one of the most important things Google ads were impacted by was the gender given, as researchers quickly caught on to the fact that different types of job ads were being shown to men than were shown to women. Specifically, they were shown opportunities for much higher paying jobs than women were on average.
What Went On In This Study?
The researchers at Carnegie Mellon centered this study on Google around around something called AdFisher. The impetus behind using AdFisher was that it is capable of sending out automated web browsers in such a specific way that a network designed to extrapolate from that browser’s traffic, like Google ads, could infer from it. AdFisher would then make note of the ads that were shown when visiting a site that utilized the Google ads network. In using this, they were able to find some correlating evidence – for example, AdFisher simulations that visited websites related to substance abuse were shown Google ads for rehab programs. The study had AdFisher create an equal amount of male and female profiles, and this truly came into play when visiting websites utilizing Google ads networks that involved job seeking. What researchers found during this part was a specific advertisement, one for a career coaching service for executive jobs that would earn $200,000 or more. Male simulations were shown this ad 1,852 times. Female simulations were shown it a total of 318 times. The male simulations were shown this high paying job advertisement six times as often as the female simulations.
Is Google Being Sexist?
It’s hard to come to that specific conclusion in such a concrete manner. Certainly, this is objectively sexist from a societal standpoint. Even if it wasn’t intended, it’s still, in fact, discrimination. But the researchers of this study note that Google ads and profiling systems are so complex that there could be other factors at play.
