Introduction:
In recent years, the issue of racial bias in various fields has been discussed extensively. One area of concern is whether race affects driver ratings in ride-sharing services such as Uber ,lyft etc.
According to a 2016 NBER study, black drivers make almost 7% less than their white counterparts. This survey also confirmed what many people already know: black drivers tend to get lower evaluations than white drivers do.
Lyft, a car service, has just issued their 2019 report on how their drivers are rated. As far as the study could tell, there was no systematic discrimination against black motorists. Nonetheless, the survey did highlight certain gaps in evaluations depending on age and gender.
This article delves into the topic and offers some insight into the possible impact of racial factors on driver evaluations.
The Impact of Race on Driver Ratings:
Many drivers Use Rental cars for rideshare driving. Race has been demonstrated to be a factor in how passengers rate their drivers while using ridesharing services. African American Uber drivers were shown to obtain worse ratings than their white counterparts in a study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Researchers found that racial bias was a major factor in how they evaluated drivers.
The Stanford Graduate School of Management also conducted a study showing that riders were less inclined to accept rides from drivers whose names sounded African American. Drivers whose names sounded “white” had a 4.5% cancellation rate, while those whose names sounded “African American” had an 11.2% cancellation rate, according to the study. This indicates that there is a racial bias among riders when selecting drivers.
Not all research has confirmed a connection between racial status and evaluations of drivers, though. According to research conducted by the University of Washington, racial differences in Lyft passenger reviews are minimal. According to the data, black and white drivers are evaluated similarly on average.
Potential Reasons for Racial Bias in Driver Ratings:
Many factors could cause drivers’ ratings in ridesharing services to be affected by race. Unconscious bias, in which people harbour prejudices against groups they are unaware they hold, is one possible explanation. A passenger’s implicit biases against individuals of race may lead them to rate an African American driver lower than they otherwise would.
Explicit prejudice, in which people have preconceived notions about others that they are aware they hold, is another factor. As an extreme case, a passenger may rate an African American driver lower because of their overt racism.
Cultural Differences:
The way passengers and drivers express themselves to one another might also be affected by cultural norms. Some drivers may interpret slang or the manner some African Americans speak as harsh because of their race. Similar to how passengers may not comprehend some driving gestures because they are not familiar with them, drivers may not understand certain cultural conventions or practices.
Conclusion
It would appear from the research and other considerations that race does play a part in the ratings drivers receive on platforms like Uber. According to a number of studies, black drivers have a statistically significant tendency to earn less money and have lower ratings than white drivers.
