Americans Misperceive Racial Disparities in Economic Mobility

Davidai, Shai; Walker, Jesse

doi:10.1177/01461672211024115

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(65 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, recent data suggest that most (>60%) US adults underestimate Black–White wealth inequality by at least 20 percentage points ( 23 ). Similar patterns also hold for beliefs about residential segregation and economic mobility ( 25 , 26 ). Given this prior work, and the fact that policing data are both notoriously scattered and infrequently publicized ( 18 , 27 ), we anticipated that most individuals would have inaccurate beliefs about minority representation in US policing.…”

Section: Beliefs About Minority Representation In Policingsupporting

confidence: 54%

Beliefs about minority representation in policing and support for diversification

Peyton

Weiss

Vaughn

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Diversification of police forces is widely promoted as a reform for reducing racial disparities in police–civilian interactions and increasing police legitimacy. Despite these potential benefits, nearly every municipal police department in the United States remains predominately White and male. Here, we investigate whether the scale and persistence of minority underrepresentation in policing might partly be explained by a lack of support for diversification among voters and current police officers. Across two studies ( N = 2, 661) sampling the US adult population and residents from a city with one of the least representative police forces in the country, individuals significantly overestimate officer diversity at both the local and national levels. We find that correcting these biased beliefs with accurate information reduces trust in police and increases support for hiring new officers from underrepresented groups. In the municipal sample, these corrections also cause an increase in residents’ willingness to vote for reforms to diversify their majority White police department. Additional paired decision-making experiments ( N = 1, 663) conducted on these residents and current police officers demonstrate that both prefer hiring new officers from currently underrepresented groups, independent of civil service exam performance and other hiring criteria. Overall, these results suggest that attitudes among voters and police officers are unlikely to pose a major barrier to diversity reforms.

show abstract

Section: Beliefs About Minority Representation In Policingsupporting

confidence: 54%

Beliefs about minority representation in policing and support for diversification

Peyton

Weiss

Vaughn

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast, believing that one can be economically successful may curb such zero-sum beliefs. Thus, just as economic growth weakens the belief that success is zero-sum (Sirola & Pitesa, 2017), believing in one’s own and others’ future chances of economic success (Alesina et al, 2018; Davidai, 2018; Davidai & Gilovich, 2015; Davidai & Walker, 2021; Day & Fiske, 2017) may similarly reduce zero-sum beliefs about it.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal relative deprivation and the belief that economic success is zero-sum.

Ongis¹,

Davidai²

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Why do people view economic success as zero-sum? In seven studies (including a large, nationally representative sample of more than 90,000 respondents from 60 countries), we explore how personal relative deprivation influences zero-sum thinking-the belief that one person's gains can only be obtained at other people's expense. We find that personal relative deprivation fosters a belief that economic success is zero-sum, and that this is true regardless of participants' household income, political ideology, or subjective social class. Moreover, in a large and preregistered study, we find that the effect of personal relative deprivation on zero-sum thinking is mediated by lay perceptions of society. The more people see themselves as having been unfairly disadvantaged relative to others, the more they view the world as unjust and economic success as determined by external forces beyond one's control. In turn, these cynical views of society lead people to believe that economic success is zero-sum. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on social comparisons, the distribution of resources, and the psychological consequences of feeling personally deprived.

show abstract

“…While extant literature has documented important work on perceived Black-White economic inequality (e.g., Callaghan et al, 2021;Davidai & Walker, 2022;Kraus et al, 2017Kraus et al, , 2019Kraus et al, , 2022Onyeador et al, 2021), to date, determining how the Black-White income gap directly impacts (i.e., via experimental manipulation) interracial psychological outcomes has received no empirical attention. To begin to answer such questions, it is imperative to acknowledge that work on objective racial inequality and perceived racial inequality are distinct from one another (for a review, see Peters & Jetten, 2023).…”

Section: Black-white Income Gap and Perceptions Of Interracial Compet...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of Black–White income inequality on perceived interracial psychological outcomes via perceived interracial competition.

Gordils¹,

Jamieson²,

Elliot³

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This research examined the influence of Black-White income inequality on negative interracial psychological outcomes and the role of perceived interracial competition as a mediational mechanism. The research utilized three different designs across three preregistered experiments to assess the proposed processes. Study 1 (N = 846) used a measurement-of-mediation design and found that participants assigned to the high racial income gap condition reported more perceived interracial competition, discrimination, avoidance, and anxiety relative to those in the low racial income gap condition. Effects were mediated by increased perceptions of interracial competition. Studies 2a (n = 827) and 2b (n = 841) used an experimental-causal-chain design and replicated the effect of the racial income gap condition on increased perceptions of interracial competition (Study 2a) and showed that participants in the high perceived interracial competition condition-the manipulated mechanism-exhibited greater perceived discrimination, anxiety, and mistrust relative to those in the low perceived interracial competition condition (Study 2b). Study 3 (N = 1,583) diversified the sample by recruiting similar numbers of Black (n = 796) and White (n = 787) participants and used a moderation-of-process design by simultaneously manipulating the racial income gap and perceived interracial competition. Competition moderated effects: Inequality effects were stronger for those in the high competition condition. Implications for theory development are discussed. Public Significance StatementWhen Black and White people in the United States are led to believe that they live in a ZIP-code where White people make more than Black people on average (i.e., large racial income gap), their perceptions of discrimination, avoidance, anxiety, and mistrust between these groups increase. This relationship is in part due to heightened perceptions of Black-White competition; the belief that Black and White people are competing with one another.

show abstract

Americans Misperceive Racial Disparities in Economic Mobility

Cited by 11 publications

References 55 publications

Beliefs about minority representation in policing and support for diversification

Beliefs about minority representation in policing and support for diversification

Personal relative deprivation and the belief that economic success is zero-sum.

The effect of Black–White income inequality on perceived interracial psychological outcomes via perceived interracial competition.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About