Research over the years has indicated that racial bias plays a role in job searches. A famous 2003 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that résumés with white-sounding names like Emily and Greg attracted 50 percent more callbacks than did similar résumés with Black-sounding names like Lakisha and Jamal.

To combat that bias, some academic departments, and even the National Institutes of Health, have experimented with anonymized applications. De La Cruz’s team is giving them a try this year.

Under the plan, candidates were asked to submit applications without their names or those of their institutions, the journals that published them, or the labs where they worked. Staff members not on the search committee ensured identifying material had been redacted. [...]

Turning over the anonymization process to applicants — rather than having a departmental staff member handle it — also goes a long way toward showing candidates that they belong at Yale, even if they didn’t earn their doctorate from a selective institution or weren’t published in the most prestigious journals, the search-committee members say. The applicant’s research and individual actions become the focus of attention.

De La Cruz, who is Latinx, says anonymization improves the confidence of the applicant. “As members of underrepresented groups,” he says, “we’re always second-guessing whether we deserve what we’re awarded. The anonymization process eliminates that self-inflicted esteem issue one carries with them forever. Because we can look these candidates straight in the face and say, ‘No, you didn’t get this because you’re Hispanic or Black.’” [...]

The search resulted in a significantly more diverse pool of candidates than last year’s. Of 194 applicants, 22 self-identified as members of underrepresented minority groups, and 62 were women.