Psychology of Discrimination

1. Psychology of Discrimination Sendhil Mullainathan Economics 1035 Fall 2007

2. Psychological Approach • Key distinction from Economic Model: • Care about mechanism and not just behavior • Even if two psychological mechanisms produce identical behavior for all practical purpose, psychologists still care • Interested in deep structure issues.

3. Three types of Discrimination • Prejudice • “I don’t like them” • Stereotyping • “I know their type” • Implicit Discrimination • “I favor equal treatment”

4. Defining Prejudice • Prejudice Hostile or negative attitude toward a group (relative or absolute terms)

5. Universal Theory of Prejudice • Prejudice not limited to deviants • Ingroup favoritism is a fundamental human tendency • Sherif classic study

6. Sherif Study • Ran a summer camp • All middle-class kids. White. 12 years old • Separated into two groups • Eagles and Rattlers • Groups had internal tension, “south siders” in the Rattlers • Initially group cohesion was low. Just a bunch of kids thrown together From the book The Robbers Cave Experiment: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation by Muzafer Sherif

7. Sherif Study • How would you introduce cohesion within the group? • Let them play games together in which the group must co-operate, separate from the other group • Treasure hunt, carrying a canoe to a certain location… • In-group cohesion followed

11. Sherif Study • Now they needed to have an out-group. • They were introduced to the other group.

16. Stereotyping • Cognitive in nature • Categorize people in to specific “types” • Jock • Cheerleader type • “Little pictures we carry around in our head”-Lippman • Psychologically important feature of stereotypes: • Under-rate within group variability • More differences between any two women than between Women and Men as a group

17. Ingroup-Outgroups Revisited • Judd-Park did an experiment on 60 business and engineering majors • Subjects complete questionnaire with trait and attitude items • Some stereotypical of engineers • "I prefer a quiet evening of reading to a loud party,“ • "One of my favorite pastimes is solving brain teasers such as Rubik's Cube" • Some counter-stereotypical of engineers • “I often act on my gut feelings rather than analyzing a situation” • "I enjoy meeting new people and having a large number of acquaintances"

18. Judd-Park • Each group judged how many of the other group would fit the characteristic • Interested in the perceived group variability of: • Own group • Other group

19. Judd-Park

20. Cognitive Mechanism • It appears through this and other research that: • People over-state ingroup variability • Under-state outgroup variability

21. Bacon-eggs • Lion-eggs • Lion-tiger • Bacon-notebook • Lion-eggs • Lion-eggs • Bacon-eggs • Bacon-notebook • Blossoms-tiger • Boat-eggs

22. Bacon-eggs • Blossoms-notebook • Blossoms-eggs • Blossoms-eggs • Lion-eggs • Bacon-tiger • Bacon-tiger

23. Blossoms-eggs • Blossoms-eggs • Lion-eggs • Blossoms-tigers • Boat-eggs • Boat-notebook • Lion-notebook • Bacon-eggs • Bacon-tiger • Bacon-eggs

24. Lion-tiger • Bacon-notebook • Blossoms-tiger • Boat-tiger • Bacon-tiger • Bacon-tiger • Bacon-eggs • Lion-eggs • Blossoms-notebook • Bacon-eggs • Boat-eggs • Boat-eggs • Lion-tiger • Lion-tiger • Lion-tiger

25. Boat-tiger • Blossoms-eggs • Bacon-tiger • Lion-eggs • Blossoms-eggs • Lion-notebook • Boat-tiger • Lion-eggs • Boat-tiger • Bacon-notebook • Boat-notebook • Bacon-notebook • Blossoms-tiger • Blossoms-tiger • Blossoms-notebook • Lion-notebook • Bacon-tiger

26. Boat-eggs • Bacon-notebook • Blossoms-notebook • Blossoms-tiger • Boat-tiger • Blossoms-notebook • Bacon-tiger • Boat-notebook • Boat-tiger • Blossoms-notebook • Lion-tiger

27. Boat-eggs • Blossoms-notebook • Blossoms-tiger • Lion-tiger • Boat-tiger • Lion-notebook • Boat-tiger • Blossoms-eggs • Blossoms-notebook • Boat-eggs • Bacon-notebook • Boat-notebook • Lion-notebook • Lion-tiger • Boat-notebook • Blossoms-eggs

28. Bacon-eggs • Blossoms-tiger • Boat-notebook • Lion-notebook • Boat-notebook • Boat-notebook • Bacon-notebook • Lion-notebook • Lion-notebook • Boat-eggs

29. What percentage of times was lion paired with tiger? Blossoms with notebook? Boat with eggs? • When bacon was presented on the left, what % of time was eggs on the right? • Answer 33% -> in such studies, people overestimate and say nearly 50%

30. Illusory Correlations • Expectancies can create illusory correlations (bacon-egg) • Paired distinctiveness (sharing of rare feature) can create illusory correlations (blossoms-notebook) • Proposed as one mechanism underlying stereotype development

31. Persistence of False Stereotypes • A key finding in psychology is that false stereotypes can persist (and emerge) • Illusory correlations are an excellent explanation why • When faced with a mass of data, we “see” the correlations we expect to see.

32. They Saw a Game • Dartmouth and Princeton students saw tapes of a Dartmouth-Princeton football game • Game gets very physical • Who started the rough play? • 86% of Princeton students say Dartmouth started it • 53% of Dartmouth students say both started it • 93% of Princeton students thought game was rough and dirty • Only 42% of Dartmouth students

33. Explicit Bias vs. Implicit Bias • Explicit (conscious) attitudes poorly measured? • Beliefs sensitive to self-presentation concerns, social desirability • Pettigrew study at diners • Implicit measurement of attitudes and beliefs eliminates these concerns

34. Implicit Bias • Attitudes and beliefs expressed outside of conscious awareness, intention, and control • Do not require introspection • Measurement requires indirect methods

35. Implicit Measurement • Indirect methods (no surveys) • Often Reaction time-based • Semantic Priming • Implicit Association Test (IAT) • related concepts easier to pair (faster) than unrelated one

36. awful terrible hatred failure vomit happy love peace friend joy

37. START happy hatred awful LEFT KNEE RIGHT KNEE joy GOOD BAD friend terrible vomit love failure peace

38. START LEFT KNEE RIGHT KNEE BAD GOOD happy hatred awful joy friend terrible vomit love failure peace

40. LEFT KNEE RIGHT KNEE

41. LEFT KNEE RIGHT KNEE

42. START happy hatred awful LEFT KNEE BAD or RIGHT KNEE GOOD or joy friend terrible vomit love failure peace

43. START happy hatred awful LEFT KNEE BAD or RIGHT KNEE GOOD or joy friend terrible vomit love failure peace

44. Race IAT Overall: 70% pro-white, 21% pro-black White Ss: 75% pro-white, 16% pro-black Black Ss: 42% pro-white, 48% pro-black

45. http://implicit.harvard.edu • Age • Gender • Race • Election • Presidents • Sexuality • Arab-Muslim • Weight • Religion • Disability • Native American • Asian American • Skin-tone • Country • Hindu-Muslim

46. What does Implicit Bias Predict? • Nonverbal communication • Greater amygdala activation to subliminal presentation of Black faces relative to White faces

47. McConnell-Liebold • Ss brought in for word perception task • Greeted by White female experimenter • Asked to sit in a rolling chair • “My shift is up” she says and black female experimenter shows up and continues in word perception task McConnell, A. R. and Liebold, J. M. (2001). Relations among the Implicit Association Test, Discriminatory Behavior, and Explicit Measures of Racial Attitudes, 37 J. Experimental Social. Psychology. 435.

48. Outcomes • Where do they place the chair? How closely do they seat. • Independent judges rate the interaction • Several judges are used. Why? • IAT done

50. Correll et. al. • Subjects asked to play a simple video game • 80 times with 20 trials in each cell Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2002). The police officer’s dilemma: Using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1314-1329.