Beyond stereotypes: Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenKommentare / Debatten / BerichteForschung

Standard

Beyond stereotypes: Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities. / Essien, Iniobong; Stelter, Marleen; Rohmann, Anette et al.
in: Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Jahrgang 45, e74, 05.2022.

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenKommentare / Debatten / BerichteForschung

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Essien I, Stelter M, Rohmann A, Degner J. Beyond stereotypes: Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2022 Mai;45:e74. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X21000832

Bibtex

@article{d85d167afcb54dabada16fb784127445,
title = "Beyond stereotypes: Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities",
abstract = "This article questions the widespread use of experimental social psychology to understand real-world group disparities. Standard experimental practice is to design studies in which participants make judgments of targets who vary only on the social categories to which they belong. This is typically done under simplified decision landscapes and with untrained decision-makers. For example, to understand racial disparities in police shootings, researchers show pictures of armed and unarmed Black and White men to undergraduates and have them press shoot and don't shoot buttons. Having demonstrated categorical bias under these conditions, researchers then use such findings to claim that real-world disparities are also due to decision-maker bias. I describe three flaws inherent in this approach, flaws which undermine any direct contribution of experimental studies to explaining group disparities. First, the decision landscapes used in experimental studies lack crucial components present in actual decisions (missing information flaw). Second, categorical effects in experimental studies are not interpreted in light of other effects on outcomes, including behavioral differences across groups (missing forces flaw). Third, there is no systematic testing of whether the contingencies required to produce experimental effects are present in real-world decisions (missing contingencies flaw). I apply this analysis to three research topics to illustrate the scope of the problem. I discuss how this research tradition has skewed our understanding of the human mind within and beyond the discipline and how results from experimental studies of bias are generally misunderstood. I conclude by arguing that the current research tradition should be abandoned.",
keywords = "discrimination, disparate outcomes, implicit bias, racial bias, school discipline, shooter bias, social psychology, stereotyping",
author = "Iniobong Essien and Marleen Stelter and Anette Rohmann and Juliane Degner",
note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2021 The Author(s).",
year = "2022",
month = may,
doi = "10.1017/S0140525X21000832",
language = "English",
volume = "45",
journal = "Behavioral and Brain Sciences",
issn = "0140-525X",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Beyond stereotypes

T2 - Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities

AU - Essien, Iniobong

AU - Stelter, Marleen

AU - Rohmann, Anette

AU - Degner, Juliane

N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

PY - 2022/5

Y1 - 2022/5

N2 - This article questions the widespread use of experimental social psychology to understand real-world group disparities. Standard experimental practice is to design studies in which participants make judgments of targets who vary only on the social categories to which they belong. This is typically done under simplified decision landscapes and with untrained decision-makers. For example, to understand racial disparities in police shootings, researchers show pictures of armed and unarmed Black and White men to undergraduates and have them press shoot and don't shoot buttons. Having demonstrated categorical bias under these conditions, researchers then use such findings to claim that real-world disparities are also due to decision-maker bias. I describe three flaws inherent in this approach, flaws which undermine any direct contribution of experimental studies to explaining group disparities. First, the decision landscapes used in experimental studies lack crucial components present in actual decisions (missing information flaw). Second, categorical effects in experimental studies are not interpreted in light of other effects on outcomes, including behavioral differences across groups (missing forces flaw). Third, there is no systematic testing of whether the contingencies required to produce experimental effects are present in real-world decisions (missing contingencies flaw). I apply this analysis to three research topics to illustrate the scope of the problem. I discuss how this research tradition has skewed our understanding of the human mind within and beyond the discipline and how results from experimental studies of bias are generally misunderstood. I conclude by arguing that the current research tradition should be abandoned.

AB - This article questions the widespread use of experimental social psychology to understand real-world group disparities. Standard experimental practice is to design studies in which participants make judgments of targets who vary only on the social categories to which they belong. This is typically done under simplified decision landscapes and with untrained decision-makers. For example, to understand racial disparities in police shootings, researchers show pictures of armed and unarmed Black and White men to undergraduates and have them press shoot and don't shoot buttons. Having demonstrated categorical bias under these conditions, researchers then use such findings to claim that real-world disparities are also due to decision-maker bias. I describe three flaws inherent in this approach, flaws which undermine any direct contribution of experimental studies to explaining group disparities. First, the decision landscapes used in experimental studies lack crucial components present in actual decisions (missing information flaw). Second, categorical effects in experimental studies are not interpreted in light of other effects on outcomes, including behavioral differences across groups (missing forces flaw). Third, there is no systematic testing of whether the contingencies required to produce experimental effects are present in real-world decisions (missing contingencies flaw). I apply this analysis to three research topics to illustrate the scope of the problem. I discuss how this research tradition has skewed our understanding of the human mind within and beyond the discipline and how results from experimental studies of bias are generally misunderstood. I conclude by arguing that the current research tradition should be abandoned.

KW - discrimination

KW - disparate outcomes

KW - implicit bias

KW - racial bias

KW - school discipline

KW - shooter bias

KW - social psychology

KW - stereotyping

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099231747&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8ec5d9be-a80d-3e7a-9d9e-44de75a8e2bb/

U2 - 10.1017/S0140525X21000832

DO - 10.1017/S0140525X21000832

M3 - Comments / Debate / Reports

C2 - 35550229

VL - 45

JO - Behavioral and Brain Sciences

JF - Behavioral and Brain Sciences

SN - 0140-525X

M1 - e74

ER -

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Rong Wongsawan’s Gonzo Journey through California in 1976
  2. Marah Durimeh oder Die Rückkehr zur 'großen Mutter'
  3. Dispute and morality in the perception of societal risks: extending the psychometric model
  4. Greene’s dual-process moral psychology and the modularity of mind
  5. Detection of up to 65% of precancerous lesions of the human colon and rectum by mutation analysis of APC, K-Ras, B-Raf and CTNNB1.
  6. Studium gestattet?
  7. Preference for violent electronic games and aggressive behavior among children
  8. Heterogenität in berufsbegleitenden sozialwissenschaftlichen Studiengängen am Beispiel einer quantitativen Datenerhebung unter Studierenden und Lehrenden
  9. Contradictions in German Penal Practices
  10. The Eye of the Storm
  11. Literature Review zu konzeptionellem Lernen in Open Inquiry Settings
  12. Standard-Essential Patents and FRAND Licensing—At the Crossroads of Economic Theory and Legal Practice
  13. Sexing Berlin?
  14. Das Konzept von Lesekompetenz in der DESI-Studie
  15. Assessment of Degradation of 18 Antibiotics in the Closed Bottle Test
  16. DISCIE–Discriminative Closed Information Extraction
  17. Nonadherence in outpatient thrombosis prophylaxis with low molecular weight heparins after major orthopaedic surgery
  18. Four Charges Against the WTO
  19. „Weiß und gebildet?“ Auf dem Weg zu einer divers(er)en Klimaschutzbewegung
  20. The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility
  21. OPPORTUNITY COST AND INCENTIVE SYSTEMS - Case study -
  22. The research process of understanding biographical learning processes of sustainability entrepreneurs
  23. Translating Pictures
  24. Schriftliches Begründen im Mathematikunterricht.
  25. Erinnerungsakte.
  26. Thema: "Demokratie und TA"
  27. Weltaktionsprogramm "Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung"
  28. Die Disruptivität der Spätmoderne: Figurationen des Un/Verfügbaren