Imaging Intelligence
Believed Gender Differences in Social Preferences
Christine Exley et al.
Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2025, Pages 403-458
Abstract:
While there is a vast (and mixed) literature on gender differences in social preferences, little is known about believed gender differences in social preferences. Using data from 15 studies and 8,979 individuals, we find that women are believed to be more generous and more equality-oriented than men. This believed gender gap is robust across a wide range of contexts that vary in terms of strategic considerations, selfish motives, fairness concepts, and payoffs. Yet this believed gender gap is largely inaccurate. Consistent with models of associative memory, specifically the role of similarity and interference, the believed gender gap is correlated with recalled prior life experiences from similar contexts and significantly affected by an experience that may interfere with the recall process of prior memories, even though this interfering experience should not affect the beliefs of perfect-memory Bayesians. Application studies further reveal that believed gender differences extend to the household (i.e., beliefs about contributions to the home, family, and upbringing of children), the workplace (i.e., beliefs about equal pay), and policy views (i.e., beliefs about redistribution, equal access to education, healthcare, and affordable housing).
Is This for Me? Differential Responses to Skin Tone Inclusivity Initiatives by Underrepresented Consumers and Represented Consumers
Jennifer D’Angelo, Lea Dunn & Francesca Valsesia
Journal of Marketing, March 2025, Pages 25-42
Abstract:
To better represent consumers who have traditionally been underrepresented in the marketplace, an increasing number of brands are extending or launching product lines that are more inclusive of a diverse consumer base. This article focuses on consumers’ feelings of representation (the feeling that they, and consumers they identify with, are seen, heard, or considered when product decisions across product categories are made) and explores how consumers who feel underrepresented (vs. represented) in skin tone products respond to more inclusive skin tone line extensions. Across seven studies using laboratory, field, and secondary data, the authors show that those who feel underrepresented have less favorable responses than those who feel represented. The authors find evidence that this is driven by product fit skepticism; that is, doubt that products in the inclusive line will meet one's skin tone needs. The authors also identify managerial interventions that improve responses among underrepresented consumers by demonstrating respect for consumer needs, thus reducing the differential response between underrepresented and represented consumers.
Group Prototypicality and Boundary Definition: Comparing White and Black Perceptions of Whether Latinos Are American
Angie Ocampo-Roland
American Political Science Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Examining group boundaries is instrumental to understanding intergroup relations, particularly differences in boundary drawing between prototypical and peripheral group members. Whether identity strength and prototypicality have an interactive effect on how group members draw boundaries has been underexplored. We also know less about how different Latinos are viewed, despite the group’s vast diversity. This paper takes up these questions and compares white and Black Americans’ views of Latinos as American. Strikingly, among all respondents, U.S. born Latinos are seen as less American when their parent is undocumented. The results suggest that Black Americans are driven by economic and political concerns and perceive greater commonality with more marginalized Latinos. Whites are driven by cultural concerns and prefer those who will not challenge their prototypicality. This illustrates a divergence in how Latinos are received among each group.
Legacies of Hate: The Psychological Legacy of the Ku Klux Klan
Maximilian Primbs et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
The second coming of the Ku Klux Klan popularized the Klan and its ideas in the early 1920s, terrorizing Black American, their allies, and others deemed un-American. This article investigates the extent to which the cultural legacy of racial hatred of the Klan has persisted over the years. We use data from large online databases, multiverse analyses, and spatial models to evaluate whether regions with more historical Klan activity show higher levels of modern-day racial bias, and more modern-day White Supremacist activity. We find that regions with more Ku Klux Klan activity in the 1920s show higher levels of modern White Supremacist activity but, unexpectedly, lower levels of modern implicit and explicit racial bias. We discuss the implications of these findings for models linking historical events with present-day attitudes and behavior, and for situational models of bias more broadly.
Conspiracy and Antisemitism in Contemporary Political Attitudes
Jacob Lewis
Political Research Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
The rise of populist politics around the world has been accompanied by a startling growth of mainstream conspiracy theorizing and antisemitism. Yet, while conspiracy, antisemitism, and populist politics seem to be related, we have little information about the causal relationships between them. Plausible explanations can link any of these three factors to one another in any configuration of causal relationships. In this exploratory research, I employ a series of experimental methods to begin teasing out these relationships while sketching the contours of the broader societal story. Drawing from multiple pre-registered survey experiments conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom, I find strong mutually reinforcing relationships between antisemitism and conspiracy theorizing. Among supporters of Joe Biden in 2020, I find evidence that exposure to conspiracies increases perceptions of Jewish political and economic power. And among supporters of Donald Trump in 2020, I find that exposure to benign vignettes about Jews increases conspiratorial thinking.
Being in the minority boosts in-group love: Explanations and boundary conditions
Roman Angel Gallardo et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People appreciate members of their in-group, and they cooperate with them -- tendencies we refer to as in-group love. Being a member of a minority (vs. majority) is a common experience that varies both between groups in a context and within a group between contexts, but how does it affect in-group love? Across six studies, we examined when and why being in the minority boosts in-group love. In Study 1, being in the minority boosted people’s appreciation of various real-life in-groups but not out-groups. In Study 2, a real-life interaction between and within groups, people cooperated more with minority in-group (but not minority out-group) members. In Studies 3–6, we measured cooperation (Study 3, incentive-compatible), appreciation (Studies 4–6), and four mediators: perceived in-group distinctiveness, experienced in-group belongingness, expected in-group cooperation, and perceived in-group status. These four mediators independently and simultaneously explained why being in the minority boosted in-group love. In Studies 5 and 6, we observed two theoretical boundary conditions for the effect. The size of the effect was smaller when the minority in-group had many (vs. few) members (Study 5), and when the imbalance between the in-group and out-group was either low or high (here: 46% minority and 54% majority or 20% minority and 80% majority) rather than moderate (here: 33% minority and 67% majority). We discuss how these findings align with and build on optimal distinctiveness theory and other theoretical accounts.
Designing for racial impartiality: The impact of relocating host photos on the Airbnb website
Shariq Mohammed
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, January 2025
Abstract:
This paper assesses the impact of Airbnb’s website redesign policy, which delayed the exposure of host profile photos, on racial discrimination. Using a difference-in-difference design across 10 major US cities, the study finds a negligible reduction in the Black-White price gap. The analysis rejects the possibility of a reduction in the Black-White price gap exceeding 2% with 95% confidence. Additionally, textual analysis of guest reviews indicates no discernible change in guests’ likelihood to leave positive reviews based on host race. Overall, these findings suggest that the policy’s modest increase in search costs was insufficient to change guests’ discriminatory behavior.
Are women really (not) more talkative than men? A registered report of binary gender similarities/differences in daily word use
Colin Tidwell et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Women are widely assumed to be more talkative than men. Challenging this assumption, Mehl et al. (2007) provided empirical evidence that men and women do not differ significantly in their daily word use, speaking about 16,000 words per day (WPD) each. However, concerns were raised that their sample was too small to yield generalizable estimates and too age and context homogeneous to permit inferences beyond college students. This registered report replicated and extended the previous study of binary gender differences in daily word use to address these concerns. Across 2,197 participants (more than five-fold the original sample size), pooled over 22 samples (631,030 ambient audio recordings), men spoke on average 11,950 WPD and women 13,349 WPD, with very large individual differences (< 100 to >120,000 WPD). The estimated gender difference (1,073 WPD; d = 0.13; 95% CrI [316, 1,824]) was about twice as large as in the original study. Smaller differences emerged among adolescent (513 WPD), emerging adult (841 WPD), and older adult (−788 WPD) participants, but a substantially larger difference emerged for participants in early and middle adulthood (3,275 WPD; d = 0.32). Despite the considerable sample size(s), all estimates carried large statistical uncertainty and, except for the gender difference in early and middle adulthood, provide inconclusive evidence regarding whether the two genders ultimately speak a practically equivalent number of WPD, based on the preregistered ± 1,000 WPD regions of practical equivalence criterion. Experienced stress had no meaningful effect on the gender difference, and no clear pattern emerged as to whether the gender difference is accentuated for subjectively rated compared with objectively observed talkativeness.