Ethnic Stereotypes: Discrimination Based on Appearance and Speech

• Using a unique laboratory experiment where subjects are asked to guess the test performance of candidates presented by facial portraits and voice messages, this paper explores the following questions: Are beliefs about performance affected by if a candidate is perceived to have an appearance non-stereotypical for the dominant population and do these beliefs change if the candidate has a native-like versus accented speech? The experiment is conducted in Sweden and the results show that candidates not perceived as stereotypically Swedish are considered to be worse performers. These beliefs are found in within-gender but not in cross-gender evaluations and are not eliminated when additional performance-related information about the candidates is provided. When candidates are presented by both appearance and speech, differential evaluations based on appearance disappears. Instead, we find strong negative beliefs about performance for candidates that speak Swedish with an accent implying that ethnic stereotypes associated with speech override stereotypes associated with appearance. Information on candidates’ actual test scores are used to evaluate mean differences. The negative beliefs associated with an accented speech are not supported by corresponding mean differences in the candidates’ actual test scores.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Nationalekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Experiment

Appearance

Speech

Beliefs

Performance

Stereotypes

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)