Stereotypes and disparities between social groups

In a series of experiments involving more than 1,200 people, researchers report evidence that disparities between social groups can be quantitatively predicted by societal stereotypes held about those groups, a finding demonstrated in laboratory economic games in which a computational model combining stereotypes about different groups' warmth and competence with economic preferences predicted disparities in resources allocated to members of the respective social groups; further, the model predicted patterns of treatment disparities documented in educational and labor markets.

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Article #17-19452: "Predicting human behavior toward members of different social groups," by Adrianna C. Jenkins, Pierre Karashchuk, Lusha Zhu, and Ming Hsu.

MEDIA CONTACT: Ming Hsu, University of California, Berkeley, CA; tel: 510-642-1686; e-mail: mhsu@haas.berkeley.edu