In the minority
David Scott Yeager et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three double-blind randomized field experiments examined the effects of a strategy to restore trust on minority adolescents’ responses to critical feedback. In Studies 1 and 2, 7th-grade students received critical feedback from their teacher that, in the treatment condition, was designed to assuage mistrust by emphasizing the teacher’s high standards and belief that the student was capable of meeting those standards — a strategy known as wise feedback. Wise feedback increased students’ likelihood of submitting a revision of an essay (Study 1) and improved the quality of their final drafts (Study 2). Effects were generally stronger among African American students than among White students, and particularly strong among African Americans who felt more mistrusting of school. Indeed, among this latter group of students, the 2-year decline in trust evident in the control condition was, in the wise feedback condition, halted. Study 3, undertaken in a low-income public high school, used attributional retraining to teach students to attribute critical feedback in school to their teachers’ high standards and belief in their potential. It raised African Americans’ grades, reducing the achievement gap. Discussion centers on the roles of trust and recursive social processes in adolescent development.
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Mismatch and the Paternalistic Justification for Selective College Admissions
Michal Kurlaender & Eric Grodsky
Sociology of Education, October 2013, Pages 294-310
Abstract:
Although some scholars report that all students are better served by attending more prestigious postsecondary institutions, others have argued that students are better off attending colleges where they are about average in terms of academic ability and suffer worse outcomes if they attend schools that are “out of their league” at which they are “overmatched.” The latter argument is most frequently deployed as a paternalistic justification for ending affirmative action. We take advantage of a natural admissions experiment at the University of California to test the effect of being overmatched for students on the margin of admission to elite universities. Consistent with the mismatch hypothesis, we find that students accumulate more credits when they attend less demanding institutions. However, students do not earn higher grades and are no more or less likely to drop out of schools where they are overmatched and are less likely to drop out than they would have been had they attended less demanding institutions.
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Danielle Atkins & Vicky Wilkins
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, October 2013, Pages 771-790
Abstract:
Research in the field of representative bureaucracy provides evidence that the presence of minority and female bureaucrats can improve outcomes for minority and female clients of an agency. However, the previous work has almost exclusively connected the benefits of representation to outcomes directly linked to the primary purpose of the organization. We contend that there may be additional benefits linked to bureaucratic representation that are beyond the mission of the agency. To test this contention, we examine whether the presence of minority and female teachers can improve outcomes, beyond educational measures, for female students. Specifically, using data from Georgia public schools, we test whether the presence of minority and female teachers lowers teen pregnancy rates. We find that as the representation of African-American teachers reaches the tipping point (around 20%) we see a significant reduction in the African-American teen pregnancy rate.
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Kendra Anderson et al.
Race and Social Problems, September 2013, Pages 157-172
Abstract:
African Americans are under-represented in higher education and disproportionately represented among offender populations, with poor educational obtainment a risk factor for criminal behavior. While African American students report low acceptance from Caucasian peers that can influence their educational persistence, few studies have examined Caucasian students’ perceptions of African American students, while examining the influence of race and criminal history. This study endeavored to begin to fill this gap. Students evaluated 1 of 24 hypothetical college applicants, manipulated by race, arrest record, and academic qualifications. Results showed that hypothetical Caucasian applicants benefited from no criminal record when evaluated by Caucasian students, and received higher ratings than Caucasian applicants with a drug arrest record and African American applicants with any criminal record. When evaluated by Caucasian students, African American applicants with no criminal record were no more likely to be accepted than Caucasian or African American applicants with a criminal record. In addition, Caucasian students felt more comfortable around the Caucasian applicant with a DWI arrest over the African American applicant with the same arrest. Racial preference for Caucasian applicants by Caucasian participants also emerged when qualifications were mixed (e.g., low GPA/high ACT). These racial differences did not emerge when ethnic minority students rated these same applicants. Yet, when Caucasian students were asked why they chose their ratings, race was never mentioned. These results support research that African American students can experience race-based barriers in higher education by Caucasian peers, but in a form that is less overt and not readily acknowledged.
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Tuppett Yates & Ana Marcelo
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated relations between preschoolers’ pretend play, examiner-rated adjustment, and teachers’ reports of educational and social adjustment in a large and racially diverse sample. Preschoolers (N = 171; Mage = 49.25 months, SD = 2.76; 89.5% non-White; 50.9% female) completed a standardized assessment of pretend play during a laboratory visit and teachers rated their academic and relational adjustment 3 months later. Interactive effects by child race were evaluated in light of prior suggestions that relations between children's creative expression and teacher-rated adjustment may vary by child race. There were no significant race differences in observers’ ratings of preschoolers’ pretend play, examiners’ ratings of child adjustment, or teachers’ ratings of child adjustment. Imaginative and expressive play features were positively related to examiners’ ratings of child ego-resilience for all children in the laboratory setting. However, child race moderated relations between these same play features and teachers’ ratings of preschooler adjustment in the classroom, even after child age, child IQ, family socioeconomic status, teacher–child racial congruence, teacher familiarity with the child, and child gender were held constant. Among Black preschoolers, imaginative and expressive pretend play features were associated with teachers’ ratings of less school preparedness, less peer acceptance, and more teacher–child conflict, whereas comparable levels of imagination and affect in pretend play were related to positive ratings on these same measures for non-Black children. These results suggest that teachers may ascribe differential meaning to child behaviors as a function of child race. Implications for child development, teacher training, and early education are discussed.
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The Net Black Advantage in Educational Transitions: An Education Careers Approach
David Merolla
American Educational Research Journal, October 2013, Pages 895-924
Abstract:
Recent studies have found a net Black advantage in educational attainment. This pattern indicates that after controlling for socioeconomic and academic characteristics, Black students are more likely to continue education than are their White counterparts. Using an educational careers approach, this study examines selection and student expectations and parental aspirations as potential explanations of this pattern. Results indicate that a net Black advantage exists from high school entry through postsecondary enrollment and that student expectations and parental aspirations partially explain the net Black advantage. These findings call into question selection explanations of the net Black advantage, underscore the role of socioeconomic disparities for educational stratification, and highlight the utility of an educational careers approach for understanding how race structures educational attainment.
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Roland Fryer & Glenn Loury
Journal of Political Economy, August 2013, Pages 747-774
Abstract:
This paper explores the economics of diversity-enhancing policies. A model is proposed in which heterogeneous agents, distinguished by skill level and social identity, purchase productive opportunities in a competitive market. We analyze policies designed to raise the status of a disadvantaged identity group. When agent identity is contractible, efficient policy grants preferred access to slots but offers no direct assistance for acquiring skills. When identity is not contractible, efficient policy provides universal subsidies to skill development when the fraction of the disadvantaged group at the skill development margin is larger than their share at the slot assignment margin.
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Jean Paul Carvalho & Mark Koyama
George Mason University Working Paper, July 2013
Abstract:
We develop a model in which individuals choose education to improve their earnings and regulate the cultural traits they acquire via social transmission. When education makes individuals more receptive to mainstream culture, minority groups under-invest in education as a form of cultural resistance. Economic and cultural incentives interact in surprising ways that increase income inequality. An increase in the skill premium induces low-ability minority types to reduce education -- a phenomenon we call resisting education. The model links technological progress, globalization and anti-discrimination policies (e.g. affirmative action, Jewish emancipation) to oppositional attitudes toward education.
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Viana Turcios-Cotto & Stephanie Milan
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, September 2013, Pages 1399-1412
Abstract:
There are striking disparities in the academic achievement of American youth, with Latino students being a particularly vulnerable population. Adolescents’ academic expectations have been shown to predict educational outcomes, and thus are an important factor in understanding educational disparities. This article examines racial/ethnic differences in the future expectations of adolescents, with a particular focus on how expectations about higher education may differ in frequency and meaning for Latino youth. Participants included 375 urban ninth-grade students (49 % Latino, 23 % White, 22 % Black, and 6 % other; 51 % female) who gave written descriptions of how they pictured their lives in 5 years. Responses were subsequently coded for content and themes. Results demonstrate that Latino youth were less likely to picture themselves attending college when compared to Black and White youth, and more likely to hold social goals, such as starting their own family. Ethnic/racial differences also were found in the themes present in responses, with Latino and Black students more likely than White students to describe individuation and materialistic goals, and to give more unrealistic responses. For Latino youth only, higher education goals were associated significantly with individuation themes. In addition, for Latino youth, adolescents who wished to pursue higher education reported more depressive symptoms and emotional distress than those who did not picture going to college, whereas the opposite pattern was evident for Black and White youth. These differences may reflect cultural values, such as familismo. Practice implications include the importance of culturally tailoring programs aimed at promoting higher education.
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Self-presentation style in job interviews: The role of personality and culture
Delroy Paulhus et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Chronic self-promoters may thrive in job interviews where such behavior is encouraged. In Study 1, 72 participants were videotaped as they simulated the job applicant role. Accountability was manipulated by the expectation of expert versus nonexpert interviewers. As accountability increased, self-promotion tended to decrease among non-narcissists but increase among narcissists. Ingratiation showed no interaction or main effects. In Study 2, 222 raters evaluated applicant videos varying in narcissism (high vs. low) and ethnicity (European heritage vs. East Asian heritage). Chronic self-promoters (i.e., European-heritage narcissists) were given the most positive evaluations. Detailed behavior analyses indicated that the narcissism advantage was derived primarily from frequent self-praise and the European-heritage advantage from use of active ingratiation tactics. In sum, self-presentation styles that pay off in the (Western) interview context are highly selective.
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Ruth van Veelen, Sabine Otten & Nina Hansen
Experimental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Majority members often react negatively to efforts to stimulate diversity. An important reason for this is that in diverse groups, majority members’ own group bond is typically based on perceived prototypicality, which serves to disregard those who are different. In the present research we investigate how majority members’ pro-diversity beliefs may be enhanced, by experimentally manipulating how the self is cognitively defined in relation to a diverse group. Specifically, we hypothesize that majority members’ focus on the personal self (i.e., self-anchoring) rather than the social self (i.e., self-stereotyping) when creating a group bond may facilitate their pro-diversity beliefs and positive attitudes toward minority members. In two experiments we manipulated self-anchoring and self-stereotyping via mindset priming among ethnic majority members in diverse teams. As expected, results showed that relative to self-stereotyping, majority members’ self-anchoring enhanced pro-diversity beliefs and positive attitudes toward minority members.
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Status Legitimizing Beliefs Predict Positivity Toward Whites Who Claim Anti-White Bias
Clara Wilkins, Joseph Wellman & Cheryl Kaiser
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, November 2013, Pages 1114–1119
Abstract:
Although Whites are increasingly likely to perceive themselves as victims of racial bias, research provides little insight into how anti-White bias claimants are perceived. Two studies examined whether Whites’ endorsement of status legitimizing beliefs (SLBs) moderates their reactions toward White discrimination claimants. In Study 1, Whites who rejected SLBs reacted less favorably to an anti-White bias claimant relative to one who made a nondiscriminatory external claim, whereas Whites who endorsed SLBs expressed equally positive attitudes toward an anti-White bias claimant and a non-claimant. In Study 2, Whites who were not primed with status legitimizing beliefs displayed negative reactions toward an anti-White bias claimant compared to a non-claimant, whereas those primed with SLBs expressed more positive attitudes and a desire to help the anti-White bias claimant. Implications for affirmative action litigation are discussed.
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Sungjoo Choi
Review of Public Personnel Administration, September 2013, Pages 275-298
Abstract:
As the proportion of racial/ethnic minorities and women in the workforce has increased, there has been the growing concern of integrating them into the mainstream of the organization. This study explores how demographic diversity (racial and gender diversity) of management influences job satisfaction of employees in public organizations. It contributes to our understanding of the role of demographically diverse managerial teams in managing the workforce by analyzing the recent data from 191 federal agencies collected in 2008 and by using a methodologically rigorous method (multilevel modeling). The results show that the higher proportion of racial/ethnic minorities and women in managerial positions is negatively related to employee job satisfaction. Racial/ethnic minorities are more satisfied with their job and organization when there are higher levels of racial/ethnic diversity in managerial positions. No significantly different impacts of gender diversity on job satisfaction of men and women were found. Diversity climate positively moderates the relationships between racial/ethnic and gender diversity of managers and job satisfaction of employees, whereas procedural justice and leadership negatively moderated the relationships.
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Importance of race, gender, and personality in predicting academic performance
Debra Steele-Johnson & Keith Leas
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, August 2013, Pages 1736–1744
Abstract:
Substantial research has demonstrated that African American students tend to perform more poorly than their White counterparts in terms of academic performance (e.g., Bali & Alvarez). However, this knowledge has proven insufficient in highlighting a clear path for countering this gap in academic achievement. The present study (n = 719) provides evidence that race (African Americans and Whites) interacts with personality in predicting academic performance (i.e., grade point average) in a college setting and that the pattern of effects differs for men and women. Agreeableness reduced race effects for women, and extraversion and openness reduced race effects for men. Our results suggest new avenues for educators and policymakers to consider when attempting to reduce this performance gap.
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Tessa Dover, Brenda Major & Cheryl Kaiser
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Diversity initiatives aim to improve outcomes for low-status groups in organizations. Yet they also may ironically act as legitimizing cues, leading to an assumption of fairness and reducing the detection of discrimination. We explored how group status (high-status majority vs. low-status minority) and beliefs about the fairness of the system influence when the mere presence of a diversity initiative will de-legitimize claims of discrimination against a company. Non-Hispanic Whites and Latino participants (N = 135) read a profile of a company that had or had not received diversity awards, and then read a discrimination claim brought against the company by a Latino employee. Whites in general, and Latinos high in system-justifying beliefs, saw the company with diversity-awards as more respectful and fair to minorities than the company with neutral awards and also derogated the discrimination claimant more. Perceived fairness mediated the effect on claimant derogation. Implications are discussed.
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The Color of Debt: Racial Disparities in Anticipated Medical Student Debt in the United States
Robert Dugger et al.
PLoS ONE, September 2013
Objective: To evaluate racial/ethnic disparities in medical student debt.
Design, Setting, and Participants: Authors collected self-reported data from a non-representative sample of 2414 medical students enrolled at 111/159 accredited US medical schools between December 1st 2010 and March 27th 2011. After weighting for representativeness by race and class year and calculating crude anticipated debt by racial/ethnic category, authors fit multivariable regression models of debt by race/ethnicity adjusted for potential confounders.
Results: 62.1% of medical students anticipated debt in excess of $150,000 upon graduation. The proportion of Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians reporting anticipated educational debt in excess of $150,000 was 77.3%, 65.1%, 57.2% and 50.2%, respectively. Both Black and White medical students demonstrated a significantly higher likelihood of anticipated debt in excess of $150,000 when compared to Asians [Blacks (OR = 2.7, 1.3–5.6), Whites (OR = 1.7, 1.3–2.2)] in adjusted models.