Categorical Cognition: A Psychological Model of Categories and Identification in Decision Making

Roland Fryer () and Matthew Jackson

No 9579, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: There is a wealth of research in psychology demonstrating that agents process information with the aid of categories. In this paper we study this phenomenon in two parts. First, we build a model of how experiences are sorted into categories and how categorization affects decision making. Second, we analyze the personal biases that result from categorization, in economic contexts. We show that discrimination can result from such cognitive processes even when there is no malevolent taste to do so and workers' qualifications are fully observable. The model also provides a framework that is equipped to investigate the social psychological concept of identity, where identity is viewed as self-categorization.

JEL-codes: D80 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-hpe and nep-mic
Note: LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Published as Fryer, Ronald and M. Jackson. “Categorical Cognition: A Psychological Model of Categories and Identification in Decision Making: An Extended Abstract." Proceedings of the 9th conference on Theoretical Aspects of Rationality and Knowledge (2003): 29-34.

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Working Paper: Categorical Cognition: A Psychological Model of Categories and Identification in Decision Making (2002)
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