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By Meenakshi Kaura

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By Edha Talwar

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Deals or Discrimination? An Intersectional Analysis of Shark Tank

By Aarohi

This study explores the intersection of race and gender in workplace discrimination, particularly through the lens of prototypicality, using data from the popular television show Shark Tank. It investigates how the racial and gender identities of entrepreneurs influence negotiation outcomes, with a specific emphasis on the variations in the types of deals they secure and their acceptance rates. By drawing on various theories, the research delves into the mechanisms that sustain inequalities in entrepreneurial negotiations. Previous studies have highlighted that prototypicality plays a crucial role in discrimination, with White men and women of color often benefiting more in workplace conflicts. Research also emphasizes how systemic biases and cognitive shortcuts influence decision-making in uncertain situations, typically reinforcing existing social hierarchies. This study expands on these findings by analyzing real-world negotiations to highlight the concrete impacts of intersectionality. The results indicate that White men were offered the most favorable deals, while women of color encountered a wide range of offers, from very advantageous to extremely unfavorable. White women and men of color were more likely to receive poor deals, with White women often accepting them. These results are consistent with previous literature on intersectional discrimination and illustrate the significant impact of prototypicality on negotiation dynamics. This research highlights the ongoing presence of biases and their consequences for equity in both entrepreneurial and professional environments. INTRODUCTION Today, we continue to see discrimination based on identity, particularly regarding race and gender, in various aspects of our lives. Specifically, the disparities are abundantly clear in the workforce as people continue to discuss the harms of workplace discrimination. It is often assumed that White people have more advantages compared to other racial groups. Similarly, men tend to have more advantages than other gender identities. However, Ponce de León discusses the effects of prototypicality in her paper “Invisible Discrimination.” Prototypicality refers “to the extent to which a person is representative of a given category, with more prototypical group members sharing a greater number of underlying attributes with the superordinate group than less prototypical group members (e.g., Rosch, 1973, 1975, 1978; Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson, & Boyes-Braem, 1976)” (Ponce de León and Rosette, 2022: 785). White women are prototypical for White people, whereas Black men are prototypical for Black people. In her study, she reviews its impacts in workplace discrimination by setting up studies in which participants respond to stereotype association questions. The results demonstrate that non-prototypical people were more likely to receive financial remedies for workplace discrimination than prototypical workers. In this paper, the same question of workplace discrimination is presented by collecting and analyzing data from numerous episodes of Shark Tank. Shark Tank is a popular American TV series in which entrepreneurs pitch their businesses and convince the sharks to invest in them. The investors evaluate their pitches and both parties negotiate to come to a deal.