constructed criteria - socialjudgments.com.pdfVIP

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Constructed Criteria Redefining Merit to Justify Discrimination Eric Luis Uhlmann and Geoffrey L. Cohen Yale University ABSTRACT— This article presents an account of job dis- female job applicants, stereotyping in terms of personality as- crimination according to which people redefine merit in a sessments was eliminated. However, participants continued to manner congenial to the idiosyncratic credentials of in- discriminate against female applicants for traditionally male dividual applicants from desired groups. In three studies, jobs (e.g., manager) and against male applicants for tradition- participants assigned male and female applicants to gen- ally female jobs (e.g., secretary). der-stereotypical jobs. However, they did not view male We argue that discrimination can persist when ambiguity and female applicants as having different strengths and exists not in the target of judgment but in the appropriate cri- weaknesses. Instead, they redefined the criteria for suc- teria of judgment. Even without ambiguity in applicants’ cre- cess at the job as requiring the specific credentials that a dentials, the criteria used to assess merit can be defined flexibly candidate of the desired gender happened to have. Com- in a manner congenial to the idiosyncratic strengths of appli- mitment to hiring criteria prior to disclosure of the appli- cants who belong to desired groups (see also Hodson, Dovidio, cant’s gender eliminated discrimination, suggesting that Gaertner, 2002; Norton, Vandello, Darley, 2004; Steele bias in the construction of hiring criteria plays a causal Green, 1976). For example, decision m