How do mental models influence discrimination and economic disparities?

• Applicant: Dr. Kai Barron
• Subject Area: Economic Theory ; Economic Policy, Applied Economics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549388586

The research outlined in this proposal seeks to examine the influence of mental models on discrimination and economic disparities. Discrimination is defined as the differential treatment of individuals according to their group membership. Due to its importance for inequity in markets, economists have studied discrimination extensively, but have traditionally classified it as being either taste-based or statistical (belief-based). While this dichotomy is valuable, a growing literature argues that the sources of discrimination are more nuanced and do not fit neatly into this classification: Discrimination may be due to conscious or unconscious (implicit) biases, it may be due to accurate or inaccurate beliefs about group characteristics, or the anticipation of discrimination may result in disparities. The three studies that comprise the project aim to extend this line of research on the sources of discrimination by examining the role played by mental models: subjective understandings of how some process or system works, which allow us to forecast future events in social or physical systems. Each study contains an experiment designed to investigate a particular pathway through which mental models can lead to discriminatory behavior or group-based disparities. Study 1 (children’s model formation) will examine how boys and girls may inherit different mental models from their parents. This may lead them to expect different reactions to the same behavior, causing them to behave differently, which may result in gender disparities. Study 2 (models and memory) will look at the relationship between memory and mental models. By considering memory as a scarce resource, we will test a series of predictions regarding when and how people discriminate due to imperfect memory. Study 3 (models and learning) will examine how learning from one’s past discriminatory decisions can result in stereotypes that become increasingly biased over time if the individual holds an inaccurate model of the world.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Canada, France, Netherlands, Norway, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Michela Carlana; Dr. Tilman Fries; Charlotte Martres; Dr. Heather Sarsons; Marlis Schneider; Dr. Oda Sund