Implicit and explicit interethnic attitudes and ethnic discrimination in hiring

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Abstract

We study effects of explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes on ethnic discrimination in hiring. Unlike explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes are characterised by reduced controllability, awareness or intention. Effects of implicit interethnic attitudes on ethnic discrimination in the labour market remain under-researched. Moreover, previous experiments on the effects of explicit interethnic attitudes on discrimination have important drawbacks. We use data from a laboratory experiment (n = 272) consisting of an Implicit Association Test, a questionnaire and a recruitment test in which participants reviewed résumés representing fictitious applicants who varied regarding ethnicity, gender, education and work experience. Participants graded applicants and selected applicants for an interview. Results show that only explicit interethnic attitudes affect discrimination in grades, but both explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes increase discrimination in selection.

Highlights

► We study effects of explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes on discrimination. ► We do so by means of a laboratory experiment. ► Ethnic discrimination in grades is influenced only by explicit attitudes. ► Discrimination in selection is influenced by both explicit and implicit attitudes. ► Positive discrimination in selection is influenced only by explicit attitudes.

Section snippets

Introduction and research problem

A large body of sociological literature has examined prejudiced interethnic attitudes and its causes (Pettigrew and Tropp, 2000, Riek et al., 2006). This emphasis on attitudes is often justified by means of the argument that negative interethnic attitudes and negative intergroup behaviour are closely related. Many studies assume that harbouring negative interethnic attitudes leads to more negative intergroup behaviour. Allport (1954, p. 14), for example, wrote that “It is true that any negative

Explicit interethnic attitudes and discriminatory behaviour

As mentioned above, many sociological studies are based on the assumption that prejudiced interethnic attitudes lead to corresponding discriminatory behaviour. This is, however, a much debated issue and has been so for a long time. There are several publications which have shown that people’s behaviour towards out-group members is not always in accordance with their self-reported interethnic attitudes. A classical study revealing attitude–behaviour inconsistencies is one by LaPiere (1934), a

Data and measurement

The laboratory experiment was conducted amongst 288 students in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in February and March 2010. Of these participants, 203 were university students and 85 attended higher vocational education. Students of whom at least one parent was born in Morocco or Turkey or who were born in these countries themselves (n = 16) were excluded from the analyses. Thus, 272 respondents were included in the analyses.

The study consisted of three elements: (1) a recruitment test, to measure

Results

Before we turn to the effects of explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes on discriminatory behaviour, we will briefly look at the relationships between explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes.

Conclusion

This paper examined the effects of explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes on ethnic discrimination in hiring, by means of a laboratory experiment. We tested the classical hypothesis that interethnic attitudes affect this specific type of interethnic behaviour and improved upon previous research in several ways. First, in contrast to most previous field experiments on ethnic discrimination in the labour market, this study aimed to increase our knowledge about the causes of ethnic

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their very valuable comments and suggestions.

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