Judging Without Knowing: how people evaluate others based on phenotype and country of origin - Technical Report.

This  report  describes  the  design,  data,  and  main  results  of  an  online  survey  (i.e.,  the “Judging  Without  Knowing”  survey)  that  was  conducted  between  October  2017  and  June  2018  with  more  than  2,000  registered  members  on  Clickworker  (a  commercial  survey company in Germany). The survey was conducted in order to provide a post-hoc test of the stimulus  material  (photos)  that  was  used  in  two  correspondence  tests  on  labor  market discrimination (i.e., the ADIS and GEMM studies) and to enable further analyses on the role of  ethnic  stereotypes  for  ethnic  discrimination  in  hiring.  The  survey  consisted  of  two parts. The first part of the survey was a post-hoc validation study that aimed at providing an empirical test of the comparability of the photos (phenotype stimuli) from the ADIS and GEMM  studies  with  regard  to  attractiveness,  (ascribed)  competence,  and  sympathy.  The second part of the survey studied the stereotypes Germans have about different immigrant  groups  in  Germany.  In  contrast  to  previous  studies,  we  asked  respondents  to rate  in  how  far  a  range  of  bipolar  adjectives  that  belong  to  different  stereotype  content models (i.e., SCM, 2d-ABC model, and facet model) fit for 38 different ethnic origin groups. In addition,  we randomly varied whether respondents had to  provide their  personal view (“I think ...”) or their view of the nationally shared stereotype (“Germans think ...”). Overall, our findings show that respondents evaluated the photos from the ADIS and GEMM studies differently – but most differences were not substantial. Evaluations differed more strongly between  respondents  than  between  photos,  and  more  strongly  between  photos  of  males and  females  and  photos  series  (i.e.,  original  photos  and  photos  that  were  adjusted  with image processing software) than between phenotype groups. The stereotype survey suggests  that  instruction  matters.  Respondents  rate  the  different  origin  groups  more positively when asked to express their own opinion than when asked to state the opinion of the Germans. Second, our results raise doubts as for whether Communion is the primary dimension  when  it  comes  to  stereotypes  about  immigrant  groups  in  Germany.  Ascribed Capacity,  Beliefs,  and  Power  seem  more  important  than  ascribed  Communion.  Finally, there  seems  to  be  a  main  divide  between  the  (poor)  global  south  and  the  (wealthy)  global north.  Stereotypes  about  immigrant  groups  from  the  global  south  are  generally  more negative than stereotypes about immigrants from the global north.