Dissecting Discrimination : Identifying Its Various Faces and Their Sources

• Superior document: Entscheidungs- und Organisationstheorie
• Author: Villiger, Daniel.
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Entscheidungs- und Organisationstheorie
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This Open-Access-book examines the phenomenon of discrimination using a descriptive approach. Discrimination is omnipresent, whether it is people who discriminate against other people or, more recently, also machines that discriminate against people. The first part of the analysis employs decision theory on discrimination, leading to two fundamental subtypes: taste-based discrimination and statistical discrimination. The second part links taste-based discrimination to social identity theory, demonstrates that not all taste-based discrimination is ultimately statistical discrimination, and reveals the evolutionary origins of our tastes. The third part surveys how people get their beliefs for statistical discrimination and thereby shows that they often deviate from Bayesianism: they have inherent prior beliefs and do not exclusively update their beliefs according to Bayes’ law. Additionally, the analysis of belief formation highlights the importance of the learning environment. The last part reassembles the previously dissected aspects of discrimination, presents a new descriptive model of discrimination, and lists five implications for a normative theory of discrimination.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Defining Different Forms of Discrimination -- 2.1 When Is There Discrimination? -- 2.2 Social Discrimination Under Certainty -- 2.2.1 Are There Different Shades of Taste-Based Discrimination? -- 2.2.2 Tastes for Groups -- 2.3 Social Discrimination Under Uncertainty -- 2.4 How to Detect the Accurate Type(s) of Discrimination -- 3 Where Does Taste-Based Discrimination Come From? -- 3.1 A Taste for the Ingroup -- 3.1.1 Defining Taste-Based Discrimination in a Receiver Situation

3.1.2 Ingroup Favouritism and Social Identity Theory -- 3.1.3 Ingroup Love or Outgroup Derogation? -- 3.1.4 Tastes Outside the Ingroup-Outgroup Context -- 3.2 Is All Discrimination Ultimately Statistical Discrimination? -- 3.2.1 Interdependence of Outcomes and Direct Reciprocity -- 3.2.2 Indirect Reciprocity and Reputational Concerns -- 3.2.3 Cooperative Norm Violation -- 3.3 The Evolution of Agent-Relative Social Preferences -- 3.3.1 Why Altruistic Behaviour Can Be Adaptive -- 3.3.2 The Role of Culture in Evolution -- 3.3.3 Why Altruism Is Conditional

4 How Do We Get Our Beliefs for Statistical Discrimination? -- 4.1 Inherent Prior Beliefs -- 4.1.1 Prior Beliefs about Familiar and Unfamiliar Alternatives -- 4.1.2 Prior Beliefs about the Ingroup and Outgroup -- 4.2 How We Update Beliefs -- 4.2.1 On Availability, Frequency, and Probability -- 4.2.2 Distorted Memories -- 4.2.3 Why We Defend Our Beliefs -- 4.2.4 The Role of Social Identity in the Belief Formation Process -- 4.3 About the Beliefs We Learn -- 4.3.1 The Importance of Historical Circumstances -- 4.3.2 Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Reproduction of Social Conditions

4.3.3 On the Structure of Society -- 5 Reassembling Discrimination -- 5.1 A Descriptive Model of Discrimination -- 5.2 Implications for a Normative Theory of Discrimination -- 6 Conclusion -- References