# The Effect of the Rooney Rule on Implicit Bias in the Long Term

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.10992 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.10992/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 21 Oct 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Maximizing Submodular Functions for Recommendation in the Presence of Biases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.02806/) (2023)
- [Fairness in Ranking under Disparate Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01610/) (2023)
- [Long-Term Fairness Inquiries and Pursuits in Machine Learning: A Survey of Notions, Methods, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06736/) (2024)
- [Subset Selection Based On Multiple Rankings in the Presence of Bias: Effectiveness of Fairness Constraints for Multiwinner Voting Score Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09835/) (2023)
- [Algorithmic Hiring and Diversity: Reducing Human-Algorithm Similarity for Better Outcomes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14388/) (2025)
- [Centralized Selection with Preferences in the Presence of Biases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.04897/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A robust body of evidence demonstrates the adverse effects of implicit bias in various contexts--from hiring to health care. The Rooney Rule is an intervention developed to counter implicit bias and has been implemented in the private and public sectors. The Rooney Rule requires that a selection panel include at least one candidate from an underrepresented group in their shortlist of candidates. Recently, Kleinberg and Raghavan proposed a model of implicit bias and studied the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule when applied to a single selection decision. However, selection decisions often occur repeatedly over time. Further, it has been observed that, given consistent counterstereotypical feedback, implicit biases against underrepresented candidates can change. We consider a model of how a selection panel's implicit bias changes over time given their hiring decisions either with or without the Rooney Rule in place. Our main result is that, when the panel is constrained by the Rooney Rule, their implicit bias roughly reduces at a rate that is the inverse of the size of the shortlist--independent of the number of candidates, whereas without the Rooney Rule, the rate is inversely proportional to the number of candidates. Thus, when the number of candidates is much larger than the size of the shortlist, the Rooney Rule enables a faster reduction in implicit bias, providing an additional reason in favor of using it as a strategy to mitigate implicit bias. Towards empirically evaluating the long-term effect of the Rooney Rule in repeated selection decisions, we conduct an iterative candidate selection experiment on Amazon MTurk. We observe that, indeed, decision-makers subject to the Rooney Rule select more minority candidates in addition to those required by the rule itself than they would if no rule is in effect, and do so without considerably decreasing the utility of candidates selected.