Cognitive effects of racial diversity: White individuals’ information processing in heterogeneous groups

Sommers, Samuel R.; Warp, Lindsey S.; Mahoney, Corrine C.

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.01.003

Cited by 58 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As intergroup contact theory and social identity theory establish, shared ethnic identity is a broad basis for establishing trust among strangers. Moreover, empirical evidence shows specifically that people surrounded by ethnic peers tend to process information more superficially (26,41,42). Such superficial thinking fits with the notion of greater confidence in others' decisions: If one assumes that others' decisions are reasonable, one may exert less effort in scrutinizing them.…”

mentioning

confidence: 69%

“…For instance, ethnically diverse juries consider a wider range of perspectives, deliberate longer, and make fewer inaccurate statements than homogeneous juries (26). Compared with those in homogeneous discussion groups, students who are told they will join diverse discussion groups review the discussion materials more thoroughly beforehand (42) and write more complex postdiscussion essays (41). In markets, where information is incomplete and decisions are uncertain (43), traders may be particularly reliant on ethnicity as a group-level heuristic for establishing confidence in others' decisions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles

Levine

Apfelbaum

Bernard

et al. 2014

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

220

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Significance Markets are central to modern society, so their failures can have devastating effects. Here, we examine a prominent failure: price bubbles. We propose that bubbles are affected by ethnic homogeneity in the market and can be thwarted by diversity. Using experimental markets in Southeast Asia and North America, we find a marked difference: Market prices fit true values 58% better in diverse markets. In homogenous markets, overpricing is higher and traders’ errors are more correlated than in diverse markets. The findings suggest that price bubbles arise not only from individual errors or financial conditions, but also from the social context of decision making. Informing public discussion, our findings suggest that diversity facilitates friction that enhances deliberation and upends conformity.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 69%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles

Levine

Apfelbaum

Bernard

et al. 2014

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

220

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research has praised social category diversity's positive benefits for group performance (Antonio et al 2004;McLeod et al 1996;Sommers 2006;Sommers et al 2008), while lamenting its negative impact on interpersonal relationships. Our findings suggest that in decision-making situations, rather than lamenting the relatively lower levels of interpersonal attraction in diverse groups compared to homogeneous groups, we may want to lament the higher levels of interpersonal attraction in homogeneous groups for their detrimental impact on cognition and performance (Phillips and Apfelbaum 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Category Diversity Promotes Premeeting Elaboration: The Role of Relationship Focus

Loyd

Wang

Phillips

et al. 2013

Organization Science

125

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A purported downside of social category diversity is decreased relationship focus (i.e., one’s focus on establishing a positive social bond with a coworker). However, we argue that this lack of relationship focus serves as a central mechanism that improves information processing even prior to interaction and, ultimately, decision-making performance in diverse settings. We introduce the construct of premeeting elaboration (i.e., the extent to which individuals consider their own and others’ perspectives in the anticipation of an interaction) and explore its link with social category diversity and relationship focus. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that when disagreement occurs, social category diversity increases premeeting elaboration, with relationship focus as a central causal mechanism. Experiment 3 shows that premeeting elaboration has important implications for performance: disagreeing dyads with social category diversity elaborate more prior to meeting and, as a result, perform better on a decision-making task than those with social category homogeneity. We discuss the value of studying early-stage interaction and propose a reconsideration of the “downside” of social category diversity.

show abstract

“…We originally used the phrase ''race salience'' to refer to aspects of a trial that would raise White mock jurors' concerns about avoiding racial bias. A testable hypothesis would therefore be that a trial based on a racially charged incident should activate White jurors' motivations to avoid prejudice (see, e.g., Dunton & Fazio, 1997;Plant & Devine, 1998) or more general race-related thoughts (see, e.g., Sommers, Warp, & Mahoney, 2008). Few published mock juror studies have explicitly examined questions of process such as these (see Sommers, 2007).…”

Section: Misconception #3: Salient Racial Issues At Trial Always Leadmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Race salience” in juror decision‐making: misconceptions, clarifications, and unanswered questions

Sommers

Ellsworth

2009

Behavioral Sci & The Law

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In two frequently cited articles, Sommers and Ellsworth (2000, 2001) concluded that the influence of a defendant's race on White mock jurors is more pronounced in interracial trials in which race remains a silent background issue than in trials involving racially charged incidents. Referring to this variable more generally as "race salience," we predicted that any aspect of a trial that leads White mock jurors to be concerned about racial bias should render the race of a defendant less influential. Though subsequent researchers have further explored this idea of "race salience," they have manipulated it in the same way as in these original studies. As such, the scope of the extant literature on "race salience" and juror bias is narrower than many realize. The present article seeks to clarify this and other misconceptions regarding "race salience" and jury decision-making, identifying in the process avenues for future research on the biasing influence of defendant race.

show abstract

Cognitive effects of racial diversity: White individuals’ information processing in heterogeneous groups

Cited by 58 publications

References 37 publications

Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles

Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles

Social Category Diversity Promotes Premeeting Elaboration: The Role of Relationship Focus

“Race salience” in juror decision‐making: misconceptions, clarifications, and unanswered questions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About