Biased

by Jennifer L. Eberhardt

In a set of online studies, we asked practicing teachers in a variety of schools across different parts of the country to read the office-referral record of a middle school student who had misbehaved in some benign way, like sleeping in class. We gave the student either a stereotypically black-sounding name or a white-sounding name. We found that the race of the student did not initially influence how teachers judged the severity of the infraction or what discipline they’d recommend. But when we informed teachers that this same student had misbehaved a second time, everything changed. Teachers felt more troubled by the second infraction when the student was perceived to be black than when he was presented as white. And they wished to see stronger disciplinary action taken against the black student.