Hypocognition and the Invisibility of Social Privilege

Abstract

Purpose. Are members of socially dominant groups aware of the privileges they enjoy? We address this question by applying the notion of hypocognition to social privilege. Hypocognition is defined as lacking a rich cognitive or linguistic representation (i.e., a schema) of a concept in question. By social privilege, we refer to advantages that members of dominant social groups enjoy because of their group membership. We argue that such group members are hypocognitive of the privilege they enjoy. They have little cognitive representation of it. As a consequence, their social advantage is invisible to them. Approach. We provide a narrative review of recent empirical work demonstrating and explaining this lack of expertise and knowledge in socially dominant groups (e.g., Whites, men) about discrimination and disadvantage encountered by other groups (e.g., Blacks, Asian Americans, women), relative what members of those other groups know. Findings. This lack of expertise or knowledge is revealed by classic cognitive psychological measures. Relative to members of other groups, social dominant group members generate fewer examples of discrimination that other groups confront, remember fewer instances after being presented a list of them, and are slower to respond when classifying whether these examples are discriminatory. Social Implications. These classic measures of cognitive expertise about social privilege predict social attitude differences between social groups, specifically whether people perceive the existence of social privilege as well as believe discrimination still exists in contemporary society. Hypocognition of social privilege also carries implications for informal interventions (e.g., acting "colorblind") that are popularly discussed.

Professional success of men in the nursing workforce: An integrative review

“…Being advantaged also encompasses a hypocognitive state that makes privilege invisible to beneficiaries, characterized by the absence of inconvenience, impediments or challenges (Wu & Dunning, 2020).…”

Perceiving gender while perceiving language: Integrating psycholinguistics and gender theory

“…In contrast, members of dominant groups may display hypocognition of the ostensibly invisible social benefits bestowed upon them by their normative identities (Wu & Dunning, 2020). While the beliefs and desires of privileged groups are naturalized as belonging to persons , societal narratives may instead render the expression of agency by members of marginalized groups as unnatural, inhuman, perverse, and/or queer.…”

North and South: Naming practices and the hidden dimension of global disparities in knowledge production

“…We are not in a position to prescribe solutions, such as forcing all social science research products to be explicitly localized (or explicitly delocalized) in their titles; this work should be read as an invitation to reflect on our own disciplinary practices and take the actions we consider pertinent to avoid the perpetuation of epistemic inequalities. The lack of recognition of this bias among researchers requires further examination and may be explained by the concept of hypocognition, i.e., the notion that privilege is invisible to those who have and benefit from it (Wu and Dunning 2020). Indeed, in their attempt to achieve context-and value-free explanations of the social world, researchers might rely on their privilege to perpetuate the inequalities they study.…”