Race Discrimination in Internet Advertising: Evidence From a Field Experiment

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sehgal, Neil K. R., Svirsky, Dan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Sehgal, Neil K. R.
Svirsky, Dan
author_facet Sehgal, Neil K. R.
Svirsky, Dan
contents We present the results of an experiment documenting racial bias on Meta's Advertising Platform in Brazil and the United States. We find that darker skin complexions are penalized, leading to real economic consequences. For every \$1,000 an advertiser spends on ads with models with light-skin complexions, that advertiser would have to spend \$1,159 to achieve the same level of engagement using photos of darker skin complexion models. Meta's budget optimization tool reinforces these viewer biases. When pictures of models with light and dark complexions are allocated a shared budget, Meta funnels roughly 64\% of the budget towards photos featuring lighter skin complexions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_14307
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Race Discrimination in Internet Advertising: Evidence From a Field Experiment
Sehgal, Neil K. R.
Svirsky, Dan
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Social and Information Networks
General Economics
Economics
We present the results of an experiment documenting racial bias on Meta's Advertising Platform in Brazil and the United States. We find that darker skin complexions are penalized, leading to real economic consequences. For every \$1,000 an advertiser spends on ads with models with light-skin complexions, that advertiser would have to spend \$1,159 to achieve the same level of engagement using photos of darker skin complexion models. Meta's budget optimization tool reinforces these viewer biases. When pictures of models with light and dark complexions are allocated a shared budget, Meta funnels roughly 64\% of the budget towards photos featuring lighter skin complexions.
title Race Discrimination in Internet Advertising: Evidence From a Field Experiment
topic Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Social and Information Networks
General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14307