Asian and White Men More Likely to Be Described as “Genius” in Performance Reviews

The tenor of your performance review might depend on your race and gender.

Driving the news: Men tend to get reviews that focus on the substance of their work; while women are 22% more likely to get feedback on their personality, according to a new analysis of performance reviews from 253 companies.

• White and Asian men are far more likely to be described as “brilliant” or “genius” than any other group.

Why it matters: On an individual level, quality feedback about someone’s actual work helps them advance in their careers. Bigger picture: the differences in the way people are reviewed reveal biases about gender and race.

• “Individual bias runs deep,” says Kieran Snyder, the CEO of Textio, a software firm that did the analysis.

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