Temporal Distance and Discrimination: An Audit Study in Academia

• Published in: Psychological science Vol. 23; no. 7; pp. 710 - 717
• Main Authors: Milkman, Katherine L., Akinola, Modupe, Chugh, Dolly
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2012; Sage Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; Attitudes; Behavior. Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; College Faculty; Decision making; Decisions; Discrimination; Ethnic Groups; Faculty; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Future; Gender; Gender differences; Gender discrimination; Gender relations; Graduate students; Hispanic Americans; Hispanics; Humans; Interethnic relations; Interpersonal Relations; Least squares; Maastricht Treaty; Male; Males; Minority group students; Minority Groups; Modeling; Native Americans; Prejudice; Psychological Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Race; Racial discrimination; Racism; Racism - psychology; Random Allocation; Regression analysis; Research Report; Same day; Sex discrimination; Sex Factors; Sexism - psychology; Social Discrimination - ethnology; Social Discrimination - psychology; Social interactions. Communication. Group processes; Social psychology; Stereotypes; Students; Time Factors; Universities; White people; Women; Womens studies; prejudice; discrimination; racial and ethnic attitudes and relations; decision making; minority groups; Human; Attitude; Social group; Decision making; Experimental study; Discrimination task; Ethnic group; Social cognition; Time perception; Préjudice; Discrimination; Social interaction; Minority; Race; Time interval; Intergroup relation
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797611434539

Through a field experiment set in academia (with a sample of 6,548 professors), we found that decisions about distant-future events were more likely to generate discrimination against women and minorities (relative to Caucasian males) than were decisions about near-future events. In our study, faculty members received e-mails from fictional prospective doctoral students seeking to schedule a meeting either that day or in 1 week; students' names signaled their race (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Indian, or Chinese) and gender. When the requests were to meet in 1 week, Caucasian males were granted access to faculty members 26% more often than were women and minorities; also, compared with women and minorities, Caucasian males received more and faster responses. However, these patterns were essentially eliminated when prospective students requested a meeting that same day. Our identification of a temporal discrimination effect is consistent with the predictions of construal-level theory and implies that subtle contextual shifts can alter patterns of race- and gender-based discrimination.