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by MontyCarloHall
1568 days ago
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It seems that the “pushback” in this study is self-reported. It is possible that for the same code review, people from marginalized groups will self-report higher levels of pushback than people from non-marginalized groups, owing to persistent discrimination experienced elsewhere. For example, minorities posting to StackOverflow self-report[0] that it is a hostile place at greater rates than non-minorities, even though most StackOverflow posts do not reveal anything about the demographics of the poster. In this light, it would be interesting to see a control study that focuses only on anonymized contributions to open source repositories, where one’s demographics are completely invisible. If we also see people from marginalized groups self-reporting greater pushback at similar rates, it would show that it is simply a difference in perception, not actual discriminatory behavior from the reviewer. [0] https://stackoverflow.blog/2018/04/26/stack-overflow-isnt-ve...: “But how do we really know that too many developers experience Stack Overflow as an unwelcoming or hostile place? Well, the nice thing about problems that relate to how people feel is that finding the truth is easy. Feelings have no “technically correct.” They’re just what the feeler is telling you. When someone tells you how they feel, you can pack up your magnifying glass and clue kit, cuz that’s the answer. You’re done. And a lot of devs feel like Stack Overflow is an intimidating, unwelcoming place. We know because they tell us.” |
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I think this is quite the possibility like the child who gets picked on by parents and siblings feels like when strangers critique them it’s part of the same dynamic when it isn’t.