Affirming
Racial Diversity and Judicial Influence on Appellate Courts
Jonathan Kastellec
American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article evaluates the substantive consequences of judicial diversity on the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Due to the small percentage of racial minorities on the federal bench, the key question in evaluating these consequences is not whether minority judges vote differently from nonminority judges, but whether their presence on appellate courts influences their colleagues and affects case outcomes. Using matching methods, I show that black judges are significantly more likely than nonblack judges to support affirmative action programs. This individual-level difference translates into a substantial causal effect of adding a black judge to an otherwise all-nonblack panel. Randomly assigning a black counterjudge - a black judge sitting with two nonblack judges - to a three-judge panel of the Courts of Appeals nearly ensures that the panel will vote in favor of an affirmative action program. These results have important implications for assessing the relationship between diversity and representation on federal courts.
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Political Diversity in Social and Personality Psychology
Yoel Inbar & Joris Lammers
Perspectives on Psychological Science, September 2012, Pages 496-503
Abstract:
A lack of political diversity in psychology is said to lead to a number of pernicious outcomes, including biased research and active discrimination against conservatives. We surveyed a large number (combined N = 800) of social and personality psychologists and discovered several interesting facts. First, although only 6% described themselves as conservative "overall," there was more diversity of political opinion on economic issues and foreign policy. Second, respondents significantly underestimated the proportion of conservatives among their colleagues. Third, conservatives fear negative consequences of revealing their political beliefs to their colleagues. Finally, they are right to do so: In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social and personality psychologists said that they would discriminate against openly conservative colleagues. The more liberal respondents were, the more they said they would discriminate.
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How Conservative Are Evolutionary Anthropologists? A Survey of Political Attitudes
Henry Lyle & Eric Smith
Human Nature, September 2012, Pages 306-322
Abstract:
The application of evolutionary theory to human behavior has elicited a variety of critiques, some of which charge that this approach expresses or encourages conservative or reactionary political agendas. In a survey of graduate students in psychology, Tybur, Miller, and Gangestad (Human Nature, 18, 313-328, 2007) found that the political attitudes of those who use an evolutionary approach did not differ from those of other psychology grad students. Here, we present results from a directed online survey of a broad sample of graduate students in anthropology that assays political views. We found that evolutionary anthropology graduate students were very liberal in their political beliefs, overwhelmingly voted for a liberal U.S. presidential candidate in the 2008 election, and identified with liberal political parties; in this, they were almost indistinguishable from non-evolutionary anthropology students. Our results contradict the view that evolutionary anthropologists hold conservative or reactionary political views. We discuss some possible reasons for the persistence of this view in terms of the sociology of science.
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Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students
Corinne Moss-Racusin et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite efforts to recruit and retain more women, a stark gender disparity persists within academic science. Abundant research has demonstrated gender bias in many demographic groups, but has yet to experimentally investigate whether science faculty exhibit a bias against female students that could contribute to the gender disparity in academic science. In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student - who was randomly assigned either a male or female name - for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant. These participants also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant. The gender of the faculty participants did not affect responses, such that female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student. Mediation analyses indicated that the female student was less likely to be hired because she was viewed as less competent. We also assessed faculty participants' preexisting subtle bias against women using a standard instrument and found that preexisting subtle bias against women played a moderating role, such that subtle bias against women was associated with less support for the female student, but was unrelated to reactions to the male student. These results suggest that interventions addressing faculty gender bias might advance the goal of increasing the participation of women in science.
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Gender Differences in Executive Compensation and Job Mobility
George-Levi Gayle, Limor Golan & Robert Miller
Journal of Labor Economics, October 2012, Pages 829-872
Abstract:
Fewer women than men become executive managers. They earn less over their careers, hold more junior positions, and exit the occupation at a faster rate. We compiled a large panel data set on executives and formed a career hierarchy to analyze mobility and compensation. We find, controlling for executive rank and background, that women earn higher compensation than men, experience more income uncertainty, and are promoted more quickly. Among survivors, being female increases the chance of becoming chief executive officer. The unconditional gender pay gap and job-rank differences are primarily attributable to female executives exiting the occupation at higher rates than men.
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Peter Hinrichs
Review of Economics and Statistics, August 2012, Pages 712-722
Abstract:
I estimate the effects of affirmative action bans on college enrollment, educational attainment, and college demographic composition by exploiting time and state variation in bans. I find that bans have no effect on the typical student and the typical college, but they decrease underrepresented minority enrollment and increase white enrollment at selective colleges. In addition, I use the case study methods of Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003) and Abadie, Diamond, and Hainmueller (2010) and find that the affirmative action ban in California shifted underrepresented minority students from more selective campuses to less selective ones at the University of California.
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Affirmative action programs and business ownership among minorities and women
Robert Fairlie & Justin Marion
Small Business Economics, September 2012, Pages 319-339
Abstract:
Affirmative action programs are commonly used as a means to level the playing field for minority- and women-owned firms in public procurement markets, and therefore may be a positive factor in business entry and survival. To the extent that affirmative action programs also apply to traditional labor markets, however, they may alter the opportunity cost of starting a business. We utilize the elimination of affirmative action in California and Washington States through voter initiatives to identify the effect of affirmative action on minority and female self-employment rates. In our base specifications, we find evidence of modest increases in self-employment among minorities and women in both California and Washington after elimination of affirmative action, consistent with the hypothesis that the opportunity cost of starting a business fell due to restricting opportunities in the traditional labor markets. The sign of the estimated effect, however, is not uniformly positive when considering specific race/gender groups, and the statistical significance of the main results is somewhat sensitive to the choice of control states.
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Survival Strategies of Poor White Women in Savannah, 1800-1860
Tim Lockley
Journal of the Early Republic, Fall 2012, Pages 415-435
Abstract:
Poor white women had a particularly challenging experience in antebellum Savannah since they were female in a patriarchal society and poor members of the ‘superior race' that had numerous legal and social advantages. This articles explores the multiple ingenious survival strategies adopted by poor white women in Savannah, including marriage, employment, crime and charity. It ultimately argues that poor white women exploited their racial privileges to the full by taking advantage of legal loopholes and lax law enforcement to earn money, while at the same time earning the sympathy and financial support of elite white men and women via benevolent organisations. Poor white women were able to survive in slave societies because they had significant racial privileges that could not be denied.
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Is Mainstream Psychological Research "Womanless" and "Raceless"? An Updated Analysis
Jessica Cundiff
Sex Roles, August 2012, Pages 158-173
Abstract:
In the late 20th century, mainstream psychological research was accused of being "womanless" and "raceless" by excluding women and members of racial-ethnic minority groups and by interpreting their experiences as deviant from White male norms. The present article provides an updated analysis of the state of psychological research by examining research published in 2007 in eight prominent journals across four subdisciplines (N = 255). Two types of data were examined: (1) gender and racial-ethnic representation at the levels of editor, senior author, and participant, and (2) the presence of biased assumptions in reporting tendencies. Representation was interpreted in relation to relevant baselines drawn from U.S. data. Women and members of racial-ethnic minority groups do not appear to be underrepresented as editors in mainstream psychology. However, women continue to be underrepresented as senior authors, and members of racial-ethnic minority groups continue to be underrepresented as research participants. Furthermore, studies using predominately male or White samples (vs. female or racial-ethnic minority samples) were less likely to indicate participant gender or race-ethnicity in the title and marginally less likely to provide a rationale for including participants of only one social group, consistent with the notion that reporting tendencies within mainstream psychological research continue to reflect assumptions that men and Whites are more typical members of the category "human" than are women and racial-ethnic minorities. These findings indicate that mainstream psychology has not yet reached social equity and that efforts to increase diversity and decrease subtle biases should continue to be supported and funded.
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Nicolas Jacquemet & Constantine Yannelis
Labour Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Numerous field experiments have demonstrated the existence of discrimination in labor markets against specific minority groups. This paper uses a correspondence test to determine whether this discrimination is due to prejudice against specific groups, or a general preference for the majority group. Three groups of identical fabricated resumes are sent to help-wanted advertisements in Chicago newspapers: one with Anglo-Saxon names, one with African-American names, and one with fictitious foreign names whose ethnic origin is unidentifiable to most Americans. Resumes with Anglo-Saxon names generate nearly one third more call-backs than identical resumes with non Anglo-Saxon ones, either African-American or Foreign. We take this as evidence that discriminatory behavior is part of a larger pattern of unequal treatment of any member of non-majority groups, ethnic homophily.
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Jockeying for Position: Strategic High School Choice Under Texas' Top Ten Percent Plan
Julie Berry Cullen, Mark Long & Randall Reback
Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Beginning in 1998, all students in the state of Texas who graduated in the top ten percent of their high school classes were guaranteed admission to any in-state public higher education institution, including the flagships. While the goal of this policy is to improve college access for disadvantaged and minority students, the use of a school-specific standard to determine eligibility could have unintended consequences. Students may increase their chances of being in the top ten percent by choosing a high school with lower-achieving peers. Our analysis of students' school transitions between 8th and 10th grade three years before and after the policy change reveals that this incentive influences enrollment choices in the anticipated direction. Among the subset of students with both motive and opportunity for strategic high school choice, at least 5 percent enroll in a different high school to improve the chances of being in the top ten percent. These students tend to choose the neighborhood high school in lieu of transferring to more competitive schools and, regardless of own race, typically displace minority students from the top ten percent pool. Relatively few students have both the motive and opportunity to behave strategically in the short run, so systemic effects are inherently slight. Our finding of sizable take-up in the face of costly strategizing, however, suggests that endogenous group membership may be important in the longer run and in other settings where individuals can select their peers and are then "graded on a curve."
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Terrorism and Patriotism: On the Earnings of US Veterans following September 11, 2001
Alberto Dávila & Marie Mora
American Economic Review, May 2012, Pages 261-266
Abstract:
Using data from the 2000 census and the 2001-08 American Community Surveys, this paper examines the impact of 9/11 on the earnings of US veteran men. Our hypothesis is that the surge in patriotism after 9/11 improved their relative earnings, but this earnings effect was short-lived. In addition, we further consider whether this effect was equally felt across race/ethnicity and along regional dimensions. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find a significant short-term improvement in the relative earnings of US veteran men following 9/11. However, additional analyses suggest that this earnings effect did not evenly occur across demographic and geographic dimensions.
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Race Relations Within the US Military
James Burk & Evelyn Espinoza
Annual Review of Sociology, 2012, Pages 401-422
Abstract:
Sociologists now often say that the US military is a model of good race relations. Although there is no denying progress made in military race relations, especially since establishment of the all-volunteer force, this review challenges that comfortable claim as research done over the past two decades supports it only in part. Instead, we conclude that disparities in military allocations of goods and burdens sometimes disadvantage racial minorities. This conclusion rests on a review of institutional analyses in five arenas to which researchers have paid close attention: racial patterns in enlistment, officer promotion rates, administration of military justice, risk of death in combat, and health care for wounded soldiers. Although not a direct or intended result of military policy and practice, in three of five cases there was evidence of racial bias and institutional racism. Further work is needed to identify mechanisms through which the bias and racism arose.
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Minority Population Concentration and Earnings: Evidence From Fixed-Effects Models
Kecia Johnson, Jeremy Pais & Scott South
Social Forces, September 2012, Pages 181-208
Abstract:
Consistent with the hypothesis that heightened visibility and competition lead to greater economic discrimination against minorities, countless studies have observed a negative association between minority population concentration and minority socioeconomic attainment. But minorities who reside in areas with high minority concentration are likely to differ from minorities who reside in areas with few minorities on unobserved characteristics related to economic attainment. Thus, this association may be a product of differential skills, behaviors and networks acquired during childhood or of selective migration. Applying fixed-effects models to a quarter century of panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that for Blacks and Latinos the inverse association between minority population concentration and earnings is eliminated when unobserved person-specific characteristics are controlled. The findings suggest that the negative association between Black population size and Blacks' earnings is driven largely by the selection of high-earning Blacks into labor markets with relatively small Black populations. Most of the association between Latino population concentration and earnings is attributable to the level of Latino population concentration experienced during childhood.
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Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity Among Professionals
Kathleen McGinn & Katherine Milkman
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate the role of workgroup gender and race composition on the career mobility of professionals in "up-or-out" organizations. We develop a nuanced perspective on the potential career mobility effects of workgroup demography by integrating the social identification processes of cohesion, competition, and comparison. Using five years of personnel data from a large law firm, we examine the influence of demographic match with workgroup superiors and workgroup peers on attorneys' likelihood of turnover and promotion. Survival analyses reveal that higher proportions of same-sex superiors enhance junior professionals' career mobility. On the flip side, we observe mobility costs accruing to professionals in workgroups with higher proportions of same-sex and same-race peers. Qualitative data offer insights into the social identification processes underlying demographic similarity effects on turnover and promotion in professional service organizations.
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How Congress Could Reduce Job Discrimination by Promoting Anonymous Hiring
David Hausman
Stanford Law Review, May 2012, Pages 1343-1369
Abstract:
The Supreme Court's recent decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes made clear that Title VII can do little to address the problem of unintentional bias in employment decisions. This Note proposes a new legal solution to that problem: Congress should encourage firms to hire anonymously. The case for anonymous hiring - stripping resumes of all information related to race or sex, and eliminating selection interviews - rests on two lines of psychology research. First, experiments show that unconscious bias infects resume review and selection interviews, causing even well-intentioned employers to discriminate. Second, dozens of psychology studies suggest that interviews are poor tools for predicting job performance. Together, these studies suggest that anonymous hiring should both decrease discrimination and help firms hire more productive workers. This conclusion is counterintuitive, however, and firms need an incentive to hire anonymously. A new statutory defense to Title VII disparate treatment claims would provide that incentive, reducing liability insurance premiums for anonymous hirers. A fraud exception to this defense, together with continued disparate impact liability, would prevent firms from using anonymous hiring as a shelter for discrimination. Furthermore, anonymous hiring could incorporate affirmative action to break ties among similarly qualified applicants. The policy would also reduce hiring discrimination based on weight, size, or attractiveness - without changing federal law to protect those characteristics directly.
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Communicating about others: Motivations and consequences of race-based impressions
Monica Biernat & Amanda Sesko
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined how written communications about other people are affected by racial stereotypes and the race-relevant motivations communicators bring to the situation. Following exposure to a Black or White student's academic transcript, White communicators who were low (but not high) in the internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS) offered more favorable evaluations of Black than White students. Thus, those least concerned about expressing prejudice offered the most pro-Black communications, presumably because they use racial stereotypes and evaluated Blacks relative to lower standards. At the same time, they mis-remembered Black students as having lower GPAs than White students. Additionally, racial prejudice increased from pre- to post-test among those who communicated a positive impression of the Black student, compared to those who communicated a positive impression of a White student. Surface positivity of communications about Black students may paradoxically strengthen negative stereotypes and racial prejudice.
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Explaining Racial/Ethnic Gaps in Spatial Mismatch in the US: The Primacy of Racial Segregation
Michael Stoll, Kenya Covington & Michael Stoll
Urban Studies, November 2012, Pages 2501-2521
Abstract:
Despite declines in racial segregation across most US metropolitan areas in recent years, racial and ethnic minorities still display uneven geographical access to jobs but consistently inferior to that of Whites. This article provides a detailed analysis of the factors driving racial and ethnic gaps in spatial mismatch conditions across US metropolitan areas. Using data primarily from the 1990 and 2000 US censuses, and the 1994 and 1999 US Department of Commerce's zip code business pattern files, descriptive, multivariate and decompositional evidence is generated to address why Blacks and to a lesser extent Latinos display greater degrees of spatial mismatch than Whites. The results indicate that, among many other factors including job sprawl, racial segregation in housing markets is the most important. The models indicate that racial differences in spatial mismatch conditions, particularly between Blacks and Whites, should be eliminated in 45-50 years if racial segregation levels continue to decline in the future at rates similar to those observed over the 1990s.
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Tony Kushner
Patterns of Prejudice, Summer 2012, Pages 339-374
Abstract:
In 1923 Air Ministry regulations explicitly excluded recruits who were not of ‘pure European descent' from joining the Royal Air Force. Similar restrictions were placed on the British army and Royal Navy in the interwar period. Such rejection was present but occurred less systematically during the First World War. Kushner analyses the intellectual foundations of this discriminatory policy and the problems of definition it created before September 1939. He then explores how and why policy was changed during the Second World War, asking whether greater inclusivity was based on expediency or a change in attitudes due to the fight against Nazism. In particular, the role of race science is highlighted, explaining the persistence in exclusion of those deemed non-European well beyond 1945. Finally, he argues that the implementation of a wide-ranging colour bar has still to be acknowledged or subject to sustained memory work within the armed services and British society as a whole.
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Paul Hernandez et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The underrepresentation of racial minorities and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is a national concern. Goal theory provides a useful framework from which to understand issues of underrepresentation. We followed a large sample of high-achieving African American and Latino undergraduates in STEM disciplines attending 38 institutions of higher education in the United States over 3 academic years. We report on the science-related environmental factors and person factors that influence the longitudinal regulation of goal orientations. Further, we examine how goal orientations in turn influence distal academic outcomes such as performance and persistence in STEM. Using SEM-based parallel process latent growth curve modeling, we found that (a) engagement in undergraduate research was the only factor that buffered underrepresented students against an increase in performance-avoidance goals over time; (b) growth in scientific self-identity exhibited a strong positive effect on growth in task and performance-approach goals over time; (c) only task goals positively influenced students' cumulative grade point average, over and above baseline grade point average; and (d) performance-avoidance goals predicted student attrition from the STEM pipeline. We discuss the implications of these findings for underrepresented students in STEM disciplines.
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Detecting discrimination in the hiring process: Evidence from an Internet-based search channel
Stefan Eriksson & Jonas Lagerström
Empirical Economics, October 2012, Pages 537-563
Abstract:
This article uses data from an Internet-based CV database to study how job searchers' ethnicity, employment status, age, and gender affect how often they are contacted by firms. Since we know which types of information that are available to the recruiting firms, we can handle some of the problems with unobserved heterogeneity better than many existing discrimination studies. We find that searchers who have non-Nordic names, are unemployed or old get significantly fewer firm contacts. Moreover, this matters for the hiring outcome: searchers who get more contacts have a higher probability of getting hired.
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Mary Bernstein & Paul Swartwout
Journal of Homosexuality, September 2012, Pages 1145-1166
Abstract:
While fear among gay men and lesbians about being out in a masculinist environment is not surprising, this article examines what heterosexuals expect will happen when gay men and lesbians come out. We draw on a unique dataset from a police department in the southwest United States to examine the consequences anticipated by heterosexual police department employees if a gay or lesbian officer's sexual orientation became known in the workplace. We test four main sets of factors: individual-level demographic characteristics and religious background; homophobia; organizational tolerance for discrimination; and intergroup contact theory to explain how heterosexuals expect gay and lesbian coworkers to be treated. Using ordinary least squares regression, we find that characteristics of workplaces, measured by tolerance of discrimination, as well as contact with gay men and lesbians on the job are more significant predictors of anticipated outcomes than are individual-level traits and homophobic attitudes. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of our research.
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Bobby Wintermute
Patterns of Prejudice, Summer 2012, Pages 277-298
Abstract:
When the United States entered the First World War, the nation's Jim Crow politics contributed to the general rejection of African American men for war-time military service. Only after political pressure from black and white progressives threatened to spill over into the public sphere were the 92nd and 93rd Divisions organized and sent to France. This policy has long been studied and criticized by historians, particularly in light of the long service of the United States Army's four ‘colored regiments', the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments. However, in spite of the presence and distinguished service of these four black regiments, the War Department and the army demonstrate a morally ambiguous record of racial tolerance that allowed for the exclusion of Blacks from military service with the American Expeditionary Forces. This record is highlighted in the work of two of the army's medical officers, Charles Woodruff and Robert Shufeldt, whose work on medical ethnology and racial degeneration reveal critical justifications that were not only used to argue for the exclusion of African Americans from military service, but also, in the post-war period, to marginalize the black soldier's combat record and support the view that black men were unfit for future military service.