Collaborative Research: Accounting for Status

合作研究：地位核算

• 批准号: 0751471
• 负责人: Shelley Correll
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2008-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0751471&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Accounting; Status

SES-0751993Cecilia RidgewayStanford University SES-0751471Shelley CorrellCornell UniversitySES-0751474Ezra ZukermanMITThe role of accountability in biasing decisions in favor of high-status options is captured by the saying, ?No one ever got fired for buying IBM.? This expression reflects the recognition that decision-makers who must justify their decisions to others have an easier time defending that decision if they can say that they did what ?most people? would have done?i.e., favored the high-status option. Yet while research in economic sociology has documented such an effect, research on status in social psychology has shown what appears to be the opposite pattern, whereby accountability dampens biases in favor of status characteristics such as gender or race. With this background in mind, the intellectual merits of the proposed project are that it: 1) develops and tests a new theoretical analysis of the role of accountability in status processes that advances our understanding of important social inequality processes; 2) integrates two previously separate and seemingly contradictory strands of research on accountability and status biases. The key to this reconciliation involves recognizing that accountability is constitutive of status because status not only signals ?quality? but also acts as a social coordination device by which people align their behavior in relation to others. Insofar as a decision-maker feels dependent on audience approval but knows only that the audience is aware of the status structure, it is rational for a decision-maker to favor high-status options even when the decision-maker personally does not endorse them. But insofar as the decision-maker: believes or suspects that the audience holds unconventional beliefs (e.g., that gender and race biases are illegitimate), the bias towards high status options will be reduced. Two experiments will test hypotheses about the conditions under which accountability produces biases in favor of high status options and those in which it suppresses such biases. The first experiment employs a consumer product choice decision following economic sociology. The second involves the assessment of applicant files for hiring similar to social psychological research. Conditions within each experiment manipulate the decision maker?s sense of the audience for his of her decision so that, for both consumer choice and hiring recommendations, we predict high status favoritism in one condition while we expect such favoritism to be suppressed in other conditions. The project has several broader impacts. First it has the potential to inform policies aimed at reducing workplace discrimination against women and minorities by increasing accountability. This project suggests that the positive effects of accountability will only be realized in an environment that can effectively override conventional beliefs and replace them with specific beliefs in the local environment that decouple the association of status and quality. Second, the project will contribute to the infrastructure of science by providing graduate students and several undergraduates at two universities with first hand training and experience in the conduct of social research. Third, from past experience, the PIs expect that up to half of the graduates and undergraduates will be women and racial/ethnic minorities. Such experiences increase the likelihood that these students will pursue scientific careers.

SES-0751993Cecilia Ridgewaystanford大学SES-0751471SHELLEY CORRELLCORNELL UNIVESSIONSES-0751474EZRA ZUKEMANMIT责任制在偏见决策中的作用，以支持高地位的选择，因为这句话而没有人购买ibm ibmm ibm ibm ibm ibm ibm。这种表达反映了这样一种认识，即必须证明自己的决定合理的决策者如果可以说自己做了什么？大多数人？会做的吗？然而，尽管经济社会学研究已经记录了这种影响，但对社会心理学地位的研究表明，似乎是相反的模式，从而使责任制抑制了偏见，而偏向于性别或种族等地位特征。考虑到这一背景，提议的项目的智力优点是：1）对问责制在地位过程中的作用进行了新的理论分析，以提高我们对重要社会不平等过程的理解； 2）整合了关于问责制和地位偏见的研究的两个先前独立且看似矛盾的研究。该和解的关键涉及认识到问责制是状态的构成，因为状态不仅信号？质量？但也是一种社会协调手段，人们通过该设备将其与他人相关的行为保持一致。就决策者而言，依赖受众的认可，但只知道观众知道状态结构，即使决策者亲自不认可他们，决策者也可以偏爱高地位选项。但是，就决策者：相信或怀疑观众持有非常规的信念（例如，性别和种族偏见是违法的），对高地位选择的偏见将减少。两个实验将检验有关问责制产生偏见的条件以及抑制此类偏见的假设。第一个实验采用经济社会学后采用消费者产品选择决策。第二个涉及评估申请人文件的雇用，类似于社会心理学研究。每个实验中的条件都操纵了决策者对他的决定的看法，因此，对于消费者选择和招聘建议，我们都可以预测一种状态的高度偏爱，而我们期望在其他条件下抑制这种偏爱。该项目具有更广泛的影响。首先，它有可能通过提高责任制来降低妇女和少数民族的工作场所歧视的政策。该项目表明，问责制的积极影响只有在可以有效地覆盖常规信念并用当地环境中的特定信念取代的环境中才能实现。其次，该项目将通过为两所大学的研究生和几名大学生提供社会研究的第一手培训和经验，从而为科学的基础设施做出贡献。第三，从过去的经验来看，PI期望多达一半的毕业生和本科生将是妇女和种族/族裔少数民族。这种经历增加了这些学生从事科学职业的可能性。