Page 367 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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having illegally discriminated. Thus, the disparate treatment model of dis­
crimination is a simple one, representing the belief that individuals are mo­
tivated through bias, prejudice, or stereotypes to make conscious choices
to engage in discriminatory behavior. It tends to work best when those
biases or stereotypes are consciously held (e.g., Krieger, 1995; McGinley,
2000).
Social psychological research indicates that this is not the manner in
which many behavioral choices occur. Throughout the 1980s, this research
focused not only on conscious choice, but also on the extent to which
some psychological phenomena are set into motion unconsciously. Models
of this view of cognitive processing, called dual process models, demon­
strate that psychological phenomena can be influenced simultaneously by
conscious (intentional) and unconscious or nonconscious (automatic) cog­
nitive processes. Dual processing has been shown to exist in ways that
can affect discrimination: Attitudes, stereotypes, and categorizing behav­
ior have all been demonstrated to be activated automatically (e.g., Bargh,
Chaiken, Govender, & Pratto, 1992; Devine, 1989; Kawakami, Dovidio,
Moll, Hermsen, & Russin, 2000). Here, automatic refers to the fact that the
processes occur without effort or intention, and that they can occur without
any awareness on the part of the person experiencing them. In other words,
employers perhaps cannot report their actual legitimate reason(s) for the
action they have taken—they are unaware of them. In addition, research
shows that when explaining their behavior, people often do not or cannot
examine their cognitive processes; consequently, they select from mem­
ory an explanation that seems to "make sense" after the fact. Three recent
research streams have focused on the extent to which phenomena occur
automatically, with conclusions that more than half of human judgment
may occur without conscious control (Bargh, 1989).

Implicit Prejudice and Stereotyping

Social psychology research indicates that people may hold both explicit
and implicit prejudice. Explicit bias exists at the conscious level and can be
assessed directly via questionnaire methods. Implicit bias requires more so­
phisticated assessment techniques because it exists at a subconscious level
(e.g., Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003). Even persons who consciously
hold no negative stereotypes and who endorse egalitarian values may be
prejudiced (i.e., have negative affective reactions) below the level of con­
sciousness (Brendl, Markman, & Messner, 2001; Fazio, 1990; Greenwald,
McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). Research indicates that there are implicit prej­
udices, measurable as individual differences in attitudes, that are not con­
sciously accessible to the people who hold them. Implicit sexist stereotypes