The relationship between political ideology and judgements of bias in distributional outcomes

Jin Kim () and Gal Zauberman ()
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Jin Kim: Northeastern University
Gal Zauberman: Yale School of Management

Nature Human Behaviour, 2024, vol. 8, issue 2, 228-242

Abstract: Abstract We examine judgements of bias in distributional outcomes. Such judgements are often based on imbalance in distributional outcomes, namely, the under- or over-representation of a target group relative to some baseline. Using data from 26 studies (N = 14,925), we test how these judgements of bias vary with the target group’s characteristics (traditionally dominant or non-dominant) and the observer’s political ideology (liberal or conservative). We find that conservatives set a higher threshold for recognizing bias against traditionally non-dominant targets (women, Black people, immigrants), as compared with liberals. Conversely, liberals set a higher threshold for recognizing bias against traditionally dominant targets (men, white people, native-born citizens), as compared with conservatives. However, these relationships between political ideology and judgements of bias diminish when the targets are unknown or ideologically irrelevant. These findings emphasize the context-dependency of bias judgements and underscore the importance of stimulus sampling and appropriate selection of controls.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01779-3

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