title: Temporal distance and discrimination: an audit study in academia.
abstract: Through a field experiment set in academia (with a sample of 6,548 professors), we found that decisions about distant-future events were more likely to generate discrimination against women and minorities (relative to Caucasian males) than were decisions about near-future events. In our study, faculty members received e-mails from fictional prospective doctoral students seeking to schedule a meeting either that day or in 1 week; students' names signaled their race (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Indian, or Chinese) and gender. When the requests were to meet in 1 week, Caucasian males were granted access to faculty members 26% more often than were women and minorities; also, compared with women and minorities, Caucasian males received more and faster responses. However, these patterns were essentially eliminated when prospective students requested a meeting that same day. Our identification of a temporal discrimination effect is consistent with the predictions of construal-level theory and implies that subtle contextual shifts can alter patterns of race- and gender-based discrimination.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, 3730 Walnut St., 566 Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. kmilkman@wharton.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Katherine L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Milkman
authors.forename: Modupe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akinola
authors.forename: Dolly
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chugh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005006:Ethnicity; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D063505:Racism / Q000523:psychology; D011897:Random Allocation; D012737:Sex Factors; D063507:Sexism / Q000523:psychology; D063508:Social Discrimination / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014495:Universities