Missing identity options on forms can lead to anger and reduce feelings of belonging

Being asked to provide demographic information in official forms such as job applications – but discovering that one’s own identity group is missing from the demographic options provided – can signal a low likelihood of belonging in a particular setting and provoke anger, according to new research from Cornell.

“Devaluation by omission: Limited identity options provoke anger and increase identification,” by Sean Fath and Devon Proudfoot, assistant professors in the ILR School’s Departments of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Studies, respectively, published January 29 in Psychological Sciencealso shows that omitting one’s identity in demographic forms strengthens one’s identification with the missing group.

Identity omissions, subtle but likely widespread, can leave individuals feeling unrecognized and devalued, the authors said. They conducted six experiments involving 2,964 people who identified themselves as gender minorities or members of the Liberal Democrats, a political party in Britain with a much smaller following than the two major parties. In surveys, individuals rated on a scale of one to seven how it felt to have their identity included or not listed as a demographic choice.

This type of identity denial can be common among some minority groups. For example, until 2022, US passport applications were limited to only ‘male’ or ‘female’ gender options; “non-binary” was not a choice.

Many organizations offer limited options for their standard job applications, the research shows. For example, in a study of the ten largest employers in the US, researchers found that eight used job application forms that included only “male” and “female” as gender options in the demographics (the other two employer forms did not include any gender options). options).

Low-cost steps, such as broadening options to reflect applicants’ gender and racial identities, can foster a sense of belonging among employees and promote a positive applicant experience, Proudfoot and Fath said.

For example, the authors cite other research showing that people who fall under the broad, pan-ethnic labels of Hispanic or Latino experience greater positive feelings when they feel that their specific ethnic identity, such as “Guatemalan” or “Salvadorian,” is recognized . Thus, the authors suggest that organizations recruiting from areas with large Hispanic populations could benefit from using more specific ethnic identity options in demographic forms – such as job applications.

They said adding demographic options to be more inclusive poses little risk, noting that adding a non-binary gender option to an application form did not appear to negatively impact individuals who identify as male or female.

Companies can also consider open-ended responses, which allow people to identify themselves in their own words, and take advantage of broadening form formats so that respondents can select as many racial or ethnic options as fit their identity, rather than one ‘ check one’ format. they said.

The authors argue that decision makers in many companies may not recognize the important implications that arise from the response options they select for standard demographic forms, whether they are external forms sent to applicants or internal benchmarking surveys.

Applicants to or existing members of organizations may begin to question their level of belonging – or whether their group is valued – when they notice their personal identity being left out of the response options provided in the demographic data, Fath and Proudfoot say. However, by erring on the side of inclusivity when constructing demographics, organizations can easily address these types of omissions in social identity.