Negative Stereotypes and Willingness to Change Them: Testing Theories of Discrimination in South Africa

Jorge Agüero

Labor and Demography from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper proposes a new test to distinguish between the two leading theories of discrimination: preference versus information. Discrimination based on preferences occurs when people behave as if they refuse to change their stereotypes about the capabilities of discriminated individuals. Those who discriminate based on information are willing to alter their stereotypes. Using data from a quasi- experiment in South Africa, I test for discrimination against women and non-whites. The preliminary results show no discrimination against the former. In the case of racial discrimination, players’ stereotypes benefit non-whites instead of white opponents, but they are reluctant to change their impression for the former. However, they are willing to change their initial impression about white opponents. This has severe implications about the permanency of affirmative action policies.

Keywords: Theories of Discrimination; South Africa; Experiments; Bayesian Learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C99 J7 J79 N37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2005-06-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 25
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https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/lab/papers/0506/0506010.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Negative Stereotypes and Willingness to Change Them: Testing Theories of Discrimination in South Africa (2005)
Working Paper: Negative Stereotypes and Willingness to Change Them: Testing Theories of Discrimination in South Africa (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0506010

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