Persistent Effects of Discrimination and the Role of Social Identity

We experimentally investigated the effect on behavior of publicly revealing individuals_ membership in a traditionally discriminated against group. In village India, 168 low-caste and 168 high-caste junior high school boys solved mazes under piece rate incentives. In mixed-caste groups, the high-caste subjects solved 7 percent more mazes than the low caste among subjects whose caste was not publicly revealed, and 38 percent more mazes than the low caste among subjects whose caste was publicly revealed. The caste gap reflected a decline in the number of mazes that low-caste subjects solved. Whereas the persistence of group inequality after the end of discrimination is evidence commonly used to suggest racial/ethnic/gender/caste inferiority, the experiment pinpoints the effect that social identity can have in shaping individuals_ response to opportunity and thereby making the effects of discrimination of well-identified groups persistent.