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Misperceived Discrimination

How accurate do persons of immigrant origin perceive discrimination?

Merlin Schaeffer & Judith Kas

2022-05-25

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How accurate do persons of immigrant origin perceive ethnic discrimination?

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How accurate do persons of immigrant origin perceive ethnic discrimination?

Challenges

  • No aggregate analysis: Measure actual and perceived discrimination for individuals.
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How accurate do persons of immigrant origin perceive ethnic discrimination?

Challenges

  • No aggregate analysis: Measure actual and perceived discrimination for individuals.

  • Mis-perceptions correlation: Measure actual and perceived discrimination on the same scale.

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How accurate do persons of immigrant origin perceive ethnic discrimination?

Challenges

  • No aggregate analysis: Measure actual and perceived discrimination for individuals.

  • Mis-perceptions correlation: Measure actual and perceived discrimination on the same scale.

  • Ethics: Researchers must not discriminate participants.

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Central idea Mutual evaulation in behavioral games

  1. Two players' mutual evaluation.
  2. Clear metric: €.

Observe actual € sent.

Survey expected € received.

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Central idea Mutual evaulation in behavioral games

  1. Two players' mutual evaluation.
  2. Clear metric: €.

Observe actual € sent.

Survey expected € received.



True first name & city of residence from registers
Alisina, Ahmad, Anne, Binyamin, Joyce, Somaia, Sarah, Hayriye, Saibe, Björn, Salem, Fabienne, Sadet, Linda, Margarita, Ali, Joseph, Mhd Kheir, Baran, Bahaa, Jebran, Reno, Seiji, Irina, Ajsel, Christine, Rahim, Yaw Abrefa, Mark, Anjali Dev, Elmar, Anke, Laura, Heiko, ...





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10 Trust games per participant

  • Mainstream1 participants:
    • 3 games with mainstream players.
    • 7 games with immigrant origin players.
  • Immigrant origin2 participants:
    • 7 games with mainstream players.
    • 3 games with immigrant origin players.

Observe actual € sent to others.

1: Born in Germany and both parents born in Germany.
2: Born abroad or at least one parent born abroad.





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10 Trust games per participant

  • Mainstream1 participants:
    • 3 games with mainstream players.
    • 7 games with immigrant origin players.
  • Immigrant origin2 participants:
    • 7 games with mainstream players.
    • 3 games with immigrant origin players.

Observe actual € sent to others.

1: Born in Germany and both parents born in Germany.
2: Born abroad or at least one parent born abroad.

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Sample


1 Pre-game survey Jul-Oct '21 2 Trust games Nov-Dec '21 3 Pay-out experiment Mar '22

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Sample


1 Pre-game survey Jul-Oct '21 2 Trust games Nov-Dec '21 3 Pay-out experiment Mar '22


  • Stratified random sample from German registers.

  • Invitation via postal mail.

  • Unconditional €20 after survey. Up to €120 overall.

  • Online surveys/games in German.

  • Response rate approx. 12%-4%.

imor Hamburg Köln Frankfurt am Main München Berlin All
Mainstream N 198 222 204 184 243 1051
% row 18.8 21.1 19.4 17.5 23.1 100.0
Immigrant N 118 90 113 153 101 575
% row 20.5 15.7 19.7 26.6 17.6 100.0
Child of immigrant N 66 100 61 84 72 383
% row 17.2 26.1 15.9 21.9 18.8 100.0
All N 382 412 378 421 416 2009
% row 19.0 20.5 18.8 21.0 20.7 100.0
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Actual trust discrimination by game partner

Act Discrij=ij¯j(Germ. name)



Name N %
Name not distinct from German 2699 36.2
Distinct Non-German name 4760 63.8
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Actual trust discrimination by game partner

Act Discrij=ij¯j(Germ. name)



Name N %
Name not distinct from German 2699 36.2
Distinct Non-German name 4760 63.8

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Actual trust discrimination avg. by person

Act Discr¯i=j=1njAct Discrijnj



Name N %
Name not distinct from German 348 36.3
Distinct Non-German name 610 63.7

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After the 10 games Expectations

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After the 10 games Expectations





On average, immigrant minorities do not (mis-)expect to be discriminated!


Discrimination is not a lens through which immigrant minorities frame any random interaction.

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Expected perceived discrimination

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Expected perceived discrimination







Do immigrant minorities (mis-)perceive discrimination when they observe a cue of ethnic inequality?

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Follow-up experiment Disadvantage cue

On average, your ten game partners sent and thereby entrusted 6 € to you.

In addition, your ten game partners played trust games with other 68 more participants. 25 of these other participants had names that sound typically German.

Below you see a selection of three of these participants with names that sound typically German.

On average, your game partners sent and thereby entrusted 8 € to these three persons:

Annegret from Hamburg

Klaus from Berlin

Hartmut from München

The three have thus received 2 € more than you. How do you rate this result?

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Follow-up experiment Advantage cue

On average, your ten game partners sent and thereby entrusted 8 € to you.

In addition, your ten game partners played trust games with other 68 more participants. 25 of these other participants had names that sound typically German.

Below you see a selection of three of these participants with names that sound typically German.

On average, your game partners sent and thereby entrusted 6 € to these three persons:

Annegret from Hamburg

Klaus from Berlin

Hartmut from München

The three have thus received 2 € less than you. How do you rate this result?

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Follow-up experiment Equality cue

On average, your ten game partners sent and thereby entrusted 7 € to you.

In addition, your ten game partners played trust games with other 68 more participants. 25 of these other participants had names that sound typically German.

Below you see a selection of three of these participants with names that sound typically German.

On average, your game partners sent and thereby entrusted 7 € to these three persons:

Annegret from Hamburg

Klaus from Berlin

Hartmut from München

The three have thus received the same amount as. How do you rate this result?

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May name played a role ...

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May name played a role ...

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May name played a role ...

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"Were participants called Merlin generally
advantaged, treated equally, or disadvantaged by their game partners?"

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"Were participants called Merlin generally
advantaged, treated equally, or disadvantaged by their game partners?"

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"Were participants called Merlin generally
advantaged, treated equally, or disadvantaged by their game partners?"

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But how accurate are their perceptions about ...






  1. whether their name did (not) play a role?

  2. whether Merlins were generally: advantaged, treated equally, or disadvantaged?

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Accurate perceptions

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Accurate perceptions

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Accurate perceptions

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Accurate perceptions

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Preliminary conclusion

  • On average, people expect no discrimination, but perceive it once ethnicity is made salient.
    • ... even under the equal cue!
  • Persons with a German-sounding name are perceiving advantage at least as much as those with a non-German name are perceiving disadvantage.
  • People generalize their personal experience to equivalent others close to 1:1.
  • People seem somewhat better than random at perceiving ethnic discrimination.
    • (in the absence of obvious racial slurs etc..)
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Preliminary conclusion

  • On average, people expect no discrimination, but perceive it once ethnicity is made salient.
    • ... even under the equal cue!
  • Persons with a German-sounding name are perceiving advantage at least as much as those with a non-German name are perceiving disadvantage.
  • People generalize their personal experience to equivalent others close to 1:1.
  • People seem somewhat better than random at perceiving ethnic discrimination.
    • (in the absence of obvious racial slurs etc..)




Thank you for your attention!


Please contact me,
if you have alternative ideas on how these data can be used and would like to team-up

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How accurate do persons of immigrant origin perceive ethnic discrimination?

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