Diversity’s Double-Edged Sword: Analyzing Race’s Effect on Remote Pair Programming Interactions

Remote pair programming is widely used in software development, but no research has examined how race affects these interactions between developers. We embarked on this study due to the historical underrepresentation of Black developers in the tech industry, with White developers comprising the majority. Our study involved 24 experienced developers, forming 12 gender-balanced same- and mixed-race pairs. Pairs collaborated on a programming task using the think-aloud method, followed by individual retrospective interviews. Our findings revealed elevated productivity scores for mixed-race pairs, with no differences in code quality between same- and mixed-race pairs. Mixed-race pairs excelled in task distribution, shared decision-making, and role-exchange but encountered communication challenges, discomfort, and anxiety, shedding light on the complexity of diversity dynamics. Our study emphasizes race’s impact on remote pair programming and underscores the need for diverse tools and methods to address racial disparities for collaboration.