Americans misperceive racial economic equality

Abstract

The present research documents the widespread misperception of race-based economic equality in the United States. Across four studies (n = 1,377) sampling White and Black Americans from the top and bottom of the national income distribution, participants overestimated progress toward Black–White economic equality, largely driven by estimates of greater current equality than actually exists according to national statistics. Overestimates of current levels of racial economic equality, on average, outstripped reality by roughly 25% and were predicted by greater belief in a just world and social network racial diversity (among Black participants). Whereas high-income White respondents tended to overestimate racial economic equality in the past, Black respondents, on average, underestimated the degree of past racial economic equality. Two follow-up experiments further revealed that making societal racial discrimination salient increased the accuracy of Whites’ estimates of Black–White economic equality, whereas encouraging Whites to anchor their estimates on their own circumstances increased their tendency to overestimate current racial economic equality. Overall, these findings suggest a profound misperception of and unfounded optimism regarding societal race-based economic equality—a misperception that is likely to have any number of important policy implications.

An intersectional approach to understanding how race and social class affect intergroup processes

“…Interest in research investigating the complexity of race by social class stereotypes is emerging as an important future direction of social psychological research (e.g., Brannon et al, 2017;Brannon & Markus, 2013;Kraus, Rucker, et al, 2017;Mattan et al, 2017;Mattan et al, 2018;Richeson & Sommers, 2016). Continued investigation of the effects of race and social class on intergroup processes will supplement the current literature by elaborating on many effects previously attributed to only race or only social class.…”

“…In the United States, for example, the confounding nature of race and social class dates back to the early days of slavery (Plous & Williams, 1995), which fueled racial economic inequality. As centuries passed, racial economic inequality persisted, contrary to current misperceptions that the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites has gotten smaller over time (Kraus, Rucker, & Richeson, 2017). Decades of research on group dominance can explain the reinforcement of this racial economic stratification, with dominant groups reinforcing this stratification to maintain their group's high status in society (e.g., Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004;Sidanius & Pratto, 1999;Tajfel & Turner, 1986).…”

“…In this review, we advocate for an intersectional approach (i.e., considering how multiple social categories interact simultaneously) to race and social class by examining how race and social class intersect to influence a variety of intergroup processes including stereotypes, attitudes, cognition, and behaviors. We build this review upon recent calls for and renewed interest in understanding the intersection between race and social class for intergroup processes (e.g., Brannon, Higginbotham, & Henderson, 2017;Brannon & Markus, 2013;Kraus, Rucker, et al, 2017;Mattan, Kubota, & Cloutier, 2017;Mattan, Kubota, Dang, & Cloutier, 2018;Richeson & Sommers, 2016).…”

Going Easy and Going After: Building Inspections and the Selective Allocation of Code Violations

“…11 Inspectors' cognizance of this history does not guarantee that they would change their actions. Although Americans tend to underestimate racial disparities in economic inequality (Kraus et al 2017), deeper or more accurate understandings of racism and inequality seem to prompt varying effects on people's actions and their support for redistributive or antidiscrimination policies (Bobo and Kluegel 1997;McCall 2013;McCall et al 2017). 12 Inspectors are more likely to be called to these properties with rental units than single-family homes.…”

The multidimensional politics of inequality: taking stock of identity politics in the U.S. Presidential election of 2016

“…7. The over-emphasis on black progress and underestimation of black-white inequality among both whites and blacks is explored in Kraus et al (2017).…”