Beliefs about Racial Discrimination and Support for Pro-Black Policies

Arbeitspapier

We examine whether information about racial discrimination causally affects support for pro-black policies. Using representative samples of Americans, we elicit quantitative and incentivized beliefs about the extent of hiring discrimination against blacks. Relative to Republicans, Democrats think that blacks have to send out 47 percent more resumes than whites to receive a callback. An information treatment substantially narrows Republican–Democrat differences in beliefs, but fails to narrow differences in political behavior. Overall, the results demonstrate that correcting biases in beliefs about the extent of racial discrimination is not sufficient to reduce political polarization in support for pro-black policies.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 7828

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: racial discrimination ; beliefs ; pro-black policies ; policy preferences

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Haaland, Ingar ; Roth, Christopher
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/207219
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET