MORE THAN JUST A NAME: Nearly A Third Of Adults Have Felt Judged By Their Name | Professor Pragya Agarwal

Podcast Radio Business Interviews

Professor Pragya Agarwal, Behavioral Scientist & Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice, Loughborough University speaks to Clayton M. Coke of Podcast Radio Business to discuss MORE THAN JUST A NAME: Why Nearly A Third Of Adults Have Felt Judged By Their Name

You’ve likely heard of bias. It’s a phase often used to describe unfair or judgement for an external factor like skin colour, race, gender and religion.

But shocking new research reveals its not only these that people are making preconceived judgements on, there is also one type of prejudice that is rarely spoken about. New research conducted by Samsung UK has found that nearly a third of us have felt judged by our name, rising to more than half (53%) of people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Some of the most frequent misconceptions made about the names of those from diverse ethnic backgrounds are related to where they’re from (39%), their cultural heritage (31%), and a false assumption that English isn’t their first language (27%).

The issue is leading to drastic steps being taken but some to achieve career goals or feel accepted in society. More than 1 in 10 (12%) of people from minority backgrounds who aren’t white admit to changing their name in a job application or interview in the hope they would progress further in the process. The study also found that 16% said having or using a ‘western-sounding’ name has benefited them; this is felt most acutely by those from Arab descent (21%), followed by the Black community (19%).

To address this, Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice, Pragya Agarwal is calling on people in the community and the workplace to take extra care when pronouncing and spelling someone’s name and be aware of the bias they may portraywithout realising.

With over a fifth (22%) of people believing promotion of correct name pronunciation and understanding of cultural significance will help to reduce name bias in the workplace. 19% would even like to see anonymous job applications where names are removed from CVs to help alleviate prejudice.

Professor Argawal talks about the shocking research, explain how things can improve and explain some of the real world examples facing people across the UK.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones,wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at http://news.samsung.com

BACKGROUND AND REGIONAL INFORMATION

The research for Samsung was carried out online by Onepoll throughoutNovember 2023 amongst a panel resulting in 2,000 UK adults responding.

All research conducted adheres to the MRS Codes of Conduct (2010) in the UK and ICC/ESOMAR World Research Guidelines. Opinion Matters is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and is fully compliant with the Data Protection Act (1998).