A Note on Motivated Cognition and Discriminatory Beliefs

Lasse S. Stötzer and Florian Zimmermann

No 10019, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: In this note, we provide evidence that motivated reasoning can be a source of discriminatory beliefs. We employ a representative survey experiment where we exogenously manipulate the presence of a need for justification of anti-social behavior towards an out-group. We provide causal evidence that survey participants devalue members of an out-group to justify taking away money from the group. Our results speak to a long-standing debate on the causes of racism and discrimination and suggest an important role of motivated cognition.

Keywords: discrimination; stereotypes; racism; motivated reasoning; beliefs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-neu
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https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10019.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A note on motivated cognition and discriminatory beliefs (2024)
Working Paper: A Note on Motivated Cognition and Discriminatory Beliefs (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10019

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