tech
December 12, 2025
OK, what's going on with LinkedIn's algo?
Women ran an experiment to see if LinkedIn's new algo was being sexist and thought they proved it. But there's more complexity involved, experts say.
TL;DR
- Women users on LinkedIn experimented with changing their profile gender to male as part of the #WearthePants initiative.
- Participants reported significant increases in post engagement and impressions after changing their gender to male.
- LinkedIn states its algorithms do not use demographic information like gender to determine content visibility.
- Experts suggest potential implicit biases in the algorithm, possibly related to writing styles or other influencing factors, rather than explicit sexism.
- The experiment was initiated due to complaints about declining engagement on the platform after the implementation of LLMs.
- LinkedIn claims its AI systems use hundreds of signals, not demographic data, to determine content visibility and aims to ensure fair competition among creators.
- Some participants noted that changes in writing style, potentially aligning with male stereotypes of conciseness and directness, may have contributed to increased engagement.
- The exact workings of LinkedIn's algorithm are opaque, making it difficult to definitively attribute the observed results to gender bias.
- Content related to professional insights, career lessons, industry news, and educational information around work, business, and the economy are performing well on the platform.
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