The Challenge of Detecting Contemporary Forms of Discrimination

Abstract

While the persistent and widespread racial and gender inequalities that exist in the United States are almost certainly due to a combination of many different factors, one likely source of inequality is discrimination. As decades of research in social psychology suggest, this discrimination is often subtle and difficult to detect, and in some instances, may be unintentional. Although this type of discrimination is subtle, it is nonetheless damaging to those who are its victims and the cumulative effects of such discrimination may be substantial. In the domains of race and gender, in which individuals are presumably legally protected from discrimination, people are deprived of their civil rights when they face such behavior. Therefore, an important goal for research and practice in intergroup relations is to develop techniques that allow such discrimination to be reliably detected and to distinguish discriminatory conduct from behavior that is not influenced by subtle racial and gender biases.

The difficulty of recognizing less obvious forms of group-based discrimination

“…By focusing on less obvious forms of discrimination, the present studies also contribute a novel perspective to the literatures on perceiving discrimination in the workplace (see Nier & Gaertner, 2012;Paludi et al, 2011) and more broadly (Major et al, 2002). Previous work has focused on understanding victims' and observers' responses to established forms of discrimination that are generally understood to be illegitimate (e.g., on the basis of race, gender, or older age).…”

Stigma, Social Psychology of

“…De facto stigmatization is illegal yet de jure stigmatization remains, making it harder for the public to understand, victims to identify, the legal system to prosecute, and for researchers to study. Nier and Gaertner (2012) dedicated a special volume of the Journal of Social Issues to "The Challenges of Detecting Contemporary Forms of Discrimination." The shift toward the subtle is reflected in modern, symbolic, aversive, ambivalent, and benevolent prejudice theories and in work on dominant group privilege, entitlements, and conferred dominance.…”

Sounding “Different”: The Role of Sociolinguistic Cues in Evaluating Job Candidates

“…Claims of racial bias affecting hiring decisions are difficult to substantiate with modern forms of racism, which are often implicit, or held unconsciously. The challenges associated with establishing reliable measures to capture evolving racial attitudes are well documented in social science research (see Henry & Sears, ; Nier & Gaertner, ; Ziegert & Hanges, ).…”

“…The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most widely used measure of implicit attitudes. More than 50 different empirical studies have used the IAT to investigate relationships between implicit attitudes and a variety of criterion variables; Nier and Gaertner () hail the IAT's utility in predicting the relationship between subtle bias and discrimination. IATs ask participants to distinguish between social categories (i.e., names, faces, or ethnic groups) by responding to certain representative stimuli as quickly as possible.…”

“…Despite passage of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting race‐ and ethnicity‐based employment‐related discrimination, hiring and wage disparities between Whites and minorities persist. While the difficulties that many minorities experience in the labor market are the result of many factors, researchers continue to advance labor market discrimination as a possible explanation (e.g., Couch & Daly, ; Nier & Gaertner, ; US Department of Labor Statistics, ). At the same time, racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants are entering the workforce in record numbers and competing in a job market characterized by many applicants vying for few available positions.…”