Economic Consequences and the Motive to Discriminate

Past research indicates that increasing the economic consequences of evaluations should theoretically discourage discrimination by making it more costly. I theorize such may also encourage in settings which evaluators be motivated performance expectations, e.g., stereotypes. explore this theory using data from an online lending platform whose loan guarantee policy reduced potential borrowers’ demographics during decisions. find evidence with place, lenders evaluated female borrowers less favorably than male borrowers. This finding is consistent discouraged performance-motivated (that driven beliefs about abilities) and simultaneously encouraged consumption-motivated a like or dislike others because their demographic traits). Because underlying motives for discrimination, insights developed here apply to wide range types vary according these motives, including classic taste-based homophily-driven statistical status-based discrimination. Economic therefore represent important dynamic link between different