Paper Implicit Discrimination

What drives people to discriminate? Economists focus on two main reasons: "taste-based" and "statistical" discrimination. Under both models, individuals consciously discriminate, either for a variety of personal reasons or because group membership provides information about a relevant characteristic, such as productivity. Motivated by a growing body of psychological evidence, we put forward a third interpretation: implicit discrimination. Sometimes, we argue, discrimination may be unintentional and outside of the discriminator's awareness.

Published in: American Economic Review

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• Authored by Marianne Bertrand Dolly Chugh Sendhil Mullainathan
• 2005
• Race