The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality

Abstract

Racial economic inequality is a foundational feature of the United States, yet many Americans appear oblivious to it. The present work considers the psychology underlying this collective willful ignorance. Drawing on prior research and new evidence from a nationally representative sample of adults (N = 1,008), we offer compelling evidence that Americans vastly underestimate racial economic inequality, especially the racial wealth gap. In particular, respondents thought that the Black-White wealth gap was smaller, by around 40 percentage points in 1963 and around 80 percentage points in 2016, than its actual size. We then consider the motivational, cognitive, and structural factors that are likely to contribute to these misperceptions and suggest directions for future research to test these ideas. Importantly, we highlight the implications of our collective ignorance of racial economic inequality, the challenge of creating greater accuracy in perceptions of these racial economic disparities, as well as outline the steps policymakers might take to create messages on this topic that effectively promote equity-enhancing policies. We close with an appeal to psychological science to at least consider, if not center, the racial patterning of these profound economic gaps.

Race–status associations: Distinct effects of three novel measures among White and Black perceivers.

“…However, racial economic inequality is historical and current fact; economic data estimates that the net worth of the average Black American family is one tenth that of the average White American family (Dettling, Hsu, Jacobs, Moore, & Thompson, 2017). Americans tend to grossly underestimate this racial wealth gap, likely due to a motivated preference to believe narratives of racial progress (Kraus, Onyeador, Daumeyer, Rucker, & Richeson, 2019;Kraus, Rucker, & Richeson, 2017). However, because Black Americans as a racialized disadvantaged group are lower in socioeconomic status than White Americans as a racialized advantaged group, those who directly report such group-based inequity via Rank-and Attribute-based RSA measures are indeed approaching accuracy.…”

“…But prior work (often relying on reverse correlation methods or implicit measures) has done little to specify the bases of these stereotypic associations. For example, how is it that people simultaneously hold White=high status/Black=low status associations (Brown-Iannuzzi et al, 2017Freeman et al, 2011;Kahn et al, 2009;Kuntsman et al, 2016;Lei & Bodenhausen, 2017), yet they underestimate Black-White inequality Kraus, Onyeador, Daumeyer, Rucker, & Richeson, 2019)? The tension between findings such as these illustrates the need for specificity and precision in investigating racialized status perceptions.…”

Moving Beyond Implicit Bias Training: Policy Insights for Increasing Organizational Diversity

“…Majority group members in particular have little knowledge about the extent of the inequality in their organizations or in society. For example, White people vastly overestimate economic equality between Whites and people of color (Kraus et al, 2019; Kraus & Tan, 2015; Kuo et al, 2020; Onyeador et al, 2020a). Furthermore, there are long-standing group differences in perceptions of discrimination (Carter & Murphy, 2015).…”

“…One might expect that providing information would help people be more accurate. However, majority group members often resist information about inequality by justifying or holding onto misperceptions of inequality (Knowles et al, 2014; Kraus et al, 2019). One attempt to correct these misperceptions asked White participants to read information about persistent discrimination against Black Americans.…”

Unstandard deviation: The untapped value of positive deviance for reducing inequalities

“…Even in highly equitable systems, inequalities still occur, particularly across diverse, dispersed populations. Our argument is that positive deviance is worthy of further study, not that it can universally override bad policy or correct for lack of awareness that such inequalities exist (Kraus et al, 2019).…”