Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back, and de-biasing people’s minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. Diversity training programs have had limited success, and individual effort alone often invites backlash. Behavioral design offers a new solution. By de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts. Presenting research-based solutions, Iris Bohnet hands us the tools we need to move the needle in classrooms and boardrooms, in hiring and promotion, benefiting businesses, governments, and the lives of millions.

What Works is built on new insights into the human mind. It draws on data collected by companies, universities, and governments in Australia, India, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and other countries, often in randomized controlled trials. It points out dozens of evidence-based interventions that could be adopted right now and demonstrates how research is addressing gender bias, improving lives and performance. What Works shows what more can be done—often at shockingly low cost and surprisingly high speed.

The Promise of Behavioral Design
The violin behind the screen; a well-timed break matters; nudge by nudge; biases are everywhere; the business case for gender equality; for women, a matter of life and death; the importance of experimentation; overcoming gender bias by design
I. The Problem
1. Unconscious Bias Is Everywhere
Why people like Howard more than Heidi; the competence–likability dilemma across cultures; the dangers of having a counterstereotypical job; survivor bias; statistical discrimination, or why women cannot get a good price on a used car; who lives in Florida?; the representativeness heuristic; how your brain forms first impressions; measuring your own biases—the Implicit Association Test; a taste for discrimination
2. De-Biasing Minds Is Hard
How to know when to settle and when to take a case to court; self-serving bias; it’s your bias, not mine; teaching about bias or suppressing it can backfire; halos and hindsight; when our better natures do not whisper in our ears; why diversity training programs might not work; moral licensing; taking advice from the crowd within; a radio soap opera changing norms in Rwanda; behaviorally inspired diversity training programs
3. Doing It Yourself Is Risky
The dilemma of an academic dean at Harvard; why women are less inclined to negotiate; why President Obama called on female reporters only; the social cost of asking, and how using “we” can help; why female politicians in Sweden and the United States speak less than their male counterparts; transparency is key; negotiating on behalf of others; what the Pill and dishwashers have in common; a nudge, not a shove
4. Getting Help Only Takes You So Far
Evaluating leadership development programs; bridging the gender promotion gap through mentoring; how a business training program in India did not work for everyone; mentors or sponsors—what’s the difference?; from leadership training to leadership capacity building; why representation matters; social networks can help you achieve your goals
II. How to Design Talent Management
5. Applying Data to People Decisions
How people analytics helped new mothers at Google; why female stockbrokers earned less and female professors at MIT had smaller labs than their male counterparts; using evaluation and certification tools to reveal gender gaps; the pitfalls of a meritocracy; signing a form before completing it increases honesty; how we can improve performance appraisals; a machine can make predictions better than you can, but you might not trust it
6. Orchestrating Smarter Evaluation Procedures
Pink is for tax bills; why Lakisha needs a longer resume than Emily; how comparative evaluation can overcome stereotypical judgments; seeking diversity over cultural fit; the beauty premium trap, halo effects, and confirmation bias; in praise of the structured interview; check your biases, frames, and anchors at the door; a smarter approach to hiring and evaluation
7. Attracting the Right People
Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi for women—Coke Zero and Pepsi Max for men; looking for attractive women and experienced men in China; the economic concept of sorting; sending the right messages to attract community health workers in Zambia; what if every work arrangement was flexible until proven otherwise?; why more women apply to jobs when others do so as well; how long does stardom last?
III. How to Design School and Work
8. Adjusting Risk
De-biasing the SAT; women do not gamble on long odds when running for public office; who wants to be a millionaire?; testosterone and the winner’s effect; who else is in the room matters; stereotype threat and self-fulfilling prophecies on math tests; why the placement of that checkbox for demographic characteristics should move; counting to five in the classroom and other techniques to promote inclusion
9. Leveling the Playing Field
Girls outperform boys in reading and writing in Nordic countries and boys outperform girls in math in Latin American countries; cost-effective aid—when deworming helps more than scholarships; why overconfidence pays in self-evaluations; why formal self-appraisals should not be shared with managers; competition among the Maasai in Tanzania versus the Khasi in India; not everyone is a tennis star; how feedback can eliminate gender differences in competitiveness; the dictator game
IV. How to Design Diversity
10. Creating Role Models
The portraits on our walls; why looking at a picture of Hillary instead of Bill Clinton might make your speech better; the impact of quotas on local politics in India; how role models change stereotypical beliefs and career aspirations; becoming a politician; why having a same-sex teacher matters; the scarcity of role models can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy; fear of same-sex competition in Spain; are justices’ opinions influenced by the gender of their children?
11. Crafting Groups
Cooperation works but negotiation may not among groups of women; the pros and cons of single-sex education; more girls, better classrooms; collective intelligence; the protective effect of political correctness; diversity, done right, leads to improved performance; critical mass: gender balance in groups; quotas, perceived fairness, and the impact of affirmative action; evaluating the impact of gender diversity and quotas on corporate boards
12. Shaping Norms
Why we are more likely to pay our taxes if others do; prescribing social norms through design; more than one quarter of UK directors on the board of FTSE 100 companies are female; why we need experiments to evaluate impact; the battle of the sexes; norm entrepreneurship; why our energy bill is lower than our neighbor’s; the impact of rankings; how I became a jaywalker; the expressive power of Title IX; gender equality as a company value
13. Increasing Transparency
What you should know about restaurant hygiene; on (not) reading disclosure statements; product labeling: keep it salient, simple, and comparable; eating food from a plate, not a pyramid; the comply-or-explain approach in Canada and other countries; what traffic lights have to do with what you choose to eat; transparency of pay; how accountability can reduce stereotyping and help organizations follow through
Designing Change
We can do this; the DESIGN mnemonic; effortless and energy-saving design for lights in hotel rooms; behavioral insights teams across the globe; a leader is a behavioral designer; overcoming the tension between “want” and “should”; creating a global movement
Notes
Credits
Acknowledgments
Index

Iris Bohnet is a behavioral economist at Harvard University, where she is a professor, Director of the Women and Public Policy Program, and Co-Chair of the Behavioral Insights Group at the Kennedy School of Government.