A note on motivated cognition and discriminatory beliefs

Lasse S. Stoetzer and Florian Zimmermann

Games and Economic Behavior, 2024, vol. 147, issue C, 554-562

Abstract: In this note, we provide evidence that motivated reasoning can be a source of discriminatory beliefs. We employ a representative survey experiment in which we exogenously manipulate the presence of a need for justification of anti-social behavior towards an out-group. We find that survey participants devalue members of an out-group to justify taking away money from that 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)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825624001064
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: A Note on Motivated Cognition and Discriminatory Beliefs (2022)
Working Paper: A Note on Motivated Cognition and Discriminatory Beliefs (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:147:y:2024:i:c:p:554-562

DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2024.08.002

Access Statistics for this article

Games and Economic Behavior is currently edited by E. Kalai

More articles in Games and Economic Behavior from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().