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conceptual definition
abstract, tells you what the variable is. What is the variable?
operational definition
concrete. how do you measure it? how do you manipulate it?
theoretical perspective
efforts to integrate past findings, summarize, and interpret what may be happening
Construal Level Theory
psychological distance
how we think about things differently if it’s close to us vs if it’s far away from us
Low Level Construals
concrete, focus on detail including nonessential details
ex: operational definition
ex: Focusing on where the classroom is when registering. it doesn’t change the object for you
low level construals become more important when things are closer
you don’t care where the classroom is until the night before classes
High Level Construals
abstract, the essence, broad
ex: conceptual definition
when things are far away from you
4 Kinds of Psychological Distance
temporal distance → distance across time (1 min ago vs 1 yr ago)
spatial distance → physical space between
social distance → far away in relationship to you
hypotheticality → object/event you are considering is actually in existence or hypothetical
if something feels more hypothetical it feels more distant
high levels in any form of distance → more high level construals
less distance → more low level construals
What are the consequences of high level/low level construals?
arguments for doing arguments are conceptually lower/subordinate than arguments for doing something
pros take precedents
pros are more salient at a high distance
when things feel far away, people focus more on pros
cons are more salient at a low distance
for example: you only ask about the side effects of a medication when you want to take it
What does the Standard Story attribute the growth in the prison population to?
War on Drugs
Longer Sentences
Private sector involvement in prisons
Prison industrial complex → web that works to get more people in prison for profit
Pfaff is saying these things are overemphasized when examining mass incarceration
Composition of inmates in State prisons over time according to Pfaff
a rational prosecutor may focus more on drugs when crime is no longer rising
80s → crime is rising
90s → peaks then declines afterwards
more logical that when crime is rising incarceration of violent crime would increase, then as violent crime decreases, police would focus more on drugs
we didn’t see this though
Pretextual attacks on violence
Perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, what we see in Table 1.2 actually undermines the claim that drug admissions seemingly mattered as much as violent ones during the 1980s. That drug crime admissions rose more rapidly during a time of rising violence suggests that at least some of these drug admissions, maybe many, were pretextual attacks on violence.
What are pretextual attacks on violence
drug offenses are targeted as a way to punish violent crime
violent crime is harder to prove than drug offenses
drug offenses have physical evidence but violent is usually eyewitness based
drug convictions based on violent crime, prosecution didn’t feel confident they could prove violence → if they have drugs it’s easier to prosecute
against the mythical idea that most people incarcerated for drugs are nonviolent:
20% of those in prison for drugs admitted to having used a firearm in a previous crime
24% had prior convictions for violent crime
According to Pfaff, is the War on Drugs leading to more people cycling through the system?
there could be a disproportionate number of admissions from drug convictions, but they might not stay long (flow)
vast majority of prisoners do not involve drug convictions
no evidence that the war on drugs is leading to people churning through the system more (since so little of the admissions of unique individuals have drug convictions)
What would happen to mass incarceration if we ended the War on Drugs?
Even if we could end WoD, the resulting numbers of those incarcerated would not change that much because the majority of people in prison are not there for drug crimes.
The prison population would still be disproportionately Black and Brown
US would still be the leading incarcerator in the world
WoD is only a minor contributor of mass incarceration regardless of looking at stock or flow
Pager (2003) audit study
audit study comparing entry level job listing
compared Black and White testers (who actually went in to complete the application)
criminal background was manipulated
Black people with no criminal record had a similar % of admission to white people WITH a criminal record
Standard Story believers think there is no difference in rates of offending by race. How does Pfaff dispute the claim that there are no disparities in offending.
Black people are systemically excluded from the primary labor market (Pager (2003)’s audit study)
They are pushed to the secondary labor market → more unstable part time jobs
Also, many schools in Black neighborhoods are underfunded
they face systematically different pressures to turn to other tactics like drugs
So, Pfaff argues that it is weird that there is a claim of no disparities because of this difference in systemic pressures
The… claim that there are no real disparities in offending is somewhat more surprising… since the very racial discrimination that leads to biased enforcement should also lead to racial differences in drug offending”
Explanations of racial disparities in arrest rates for drug offenses
biased enforcement → police targeting African Americans
disparities in offending → African Americans are more likely to participate in the sale of drug
Does Pfaff avoid the Fundamental Attribution Error
If he was attributing the FAE he would be attributing offending to Black people’s internal disposition → Black people are more criminally inclined
Pfaff says if it’s true that Black people sell drugs more that does not inherently justify higher incarceration rates
rates of offending are because of environmental pressure
the blame of a poor Black kid in an urban neighborhood is lower than white kid in suburbs selling drugs because of situational pressures
the way to deter/prevent behavior should be constructive not punitive
you can consider the differences in behavior without making the error of blaming the people who engage in the behavior because there are situational issues
How does this figure show that sentences are not getting longer?
since it’s in parallel it’s consistent with sentence length not getting longer because admissions match releases
If it were to show that sentences were getting longer releases would be lagging behind admissions because people would be getting in more than they are getting out like the graph here
Pfaff’s analysis of National Center of State Courts data
1994 → 2008
reported violent crime and property crime fell
arrests for violent, property, public order, and non-marijuana drug offenses fell
number of felonies filed in state court rose
p(felony charge | an arrest) rose sharply
p(prison admission | felony case filing) was unchanged
prison admissions were unchanged
the only thing that rose was the rate at which prosecutors filed felony charges against arrestees
How has the Standard Story been costly to meaningful CJ reform?
overfocus on drug crime has led to stiffer penalties for violent convictions
these reform efforts only focusing on nonviolent crimes are not going to lead to reductions in the prison population
meaningful solutions are boring
focus more on local issues → like the way we elect prosecutors
suburban residents feel the benefits of strict enforcement and have more sway than urban residents
Segregation of costs and benefits
the benefit of punitive action is felt more by white suburban residents
costs felt more by urban POC
in the US, we tend to focus more on benefits over the cost of punishment
crime reduction benefits over time level out
Reducing the number of prisoners instead of reducing size of the prison population
reducing flow instead of stock
reduce admissions because even if the prison sentence is short, they still carry cost of felony for the rest of their lives
Standard story is costly here because even if we were to reduce the length of sentences, if a lot of people are still going to prison they still carry the costs
Pfaff urges to focus more on flow to address how many people receive costs
Front end reform → focusing on admission
Back end reform → reducing length o sentences (which doesn’t help occurring to Pfaff)
Hetey & Eberhardt
White Ps who had seen a more Black prison population (photos) demonstrated less support for criminal justice reform → less likely to sign reform of 3 strikes condition
Study 2
NY Stop & Frisk
no photos but gave stats to show more/less Black
same result → people were less inclined to sign reform in more Black condition
showing stats of a disproportionate Black prison population is NOT helpful
IV = Racial composition manipulation (condition)
Mediator = crime concern
DV = policy acceptance
crime concern → mediator
Ps report more fear of crime in more Black conditions leading to acceptance of policy (not signing reform petition)
Pfaff → defects in politics of punishment
false-positive problem
LIHS voters or “Willie Horton” effect
Geography
Census
Pfaff false-positive problem
one of the defects
false-negative → person incorrectly identified a not being a risk, and then breaking the law
wouldn’t have happened if prosecutors was harsher
false-positive → prosecutor thinks someone is high risk but they actually aren’t
voters are more upset about false negatives
incentive for prosecutors to be more harsh
they’d rather commit the false-positive and arrest an innocent person than risk letting a guilty person free
Pfaff LIHS Voters or “Willie Horton” effect
one of the defects
low information, high salience voters
voters that don’t pay attention to day to day stuff, only vote on 1 or 2 crazy cases that are not representative
Willie Horton
Mass furlough program (temp. release of inmates who were thought to be low risk)
Willie Horton was used as an example of the program not working.
In reality the success rate was over 90% → inmate left and came back with not issues
Willie Horton was unrepresentative BUT highly salient so it it attracted voters who don’t pay attention to the program’s day-to-day success
these voters prefer harsher punishments because basically in this case only focusing on negatives
don’t pay attention to recentivism (less likely to reoffend if connected with community)
Pfaff Geography
one of the defects
White Americans in the 60s were policing themselves
White Americans are still electing law enforcement → they feel benefit
geographic segregation of costs and benefits
for suburban residents, it’s not their family going to prison
perceived benefits of harsh punishments is felt by suburban residents who feel safer going into the city
the whiter and wealthier suburbs are more powerful politically
prosecutor has political incentive to be more punitive to appeal to these white voters with more political power because prosecutors are elected by county
Pfaff Census
where should inmates be counted?
encouraging for counties to send more people to jail if people are counted by where in they are being held in prison instead of where they are from
these inmates don’t get to vote
disproportionate amounts of Black and Brown people are disenfranchised but they are boosting the political influence of rural white places where the prisons are
Dred Scott
freedman attempting to buy his family’s freedom
Supreme Court was deciding if he could sue (if he had standing)
SC ruled that he did not have standing because he was property, not a person
Goff et al. found this to be a striking example of race based dehumanization
“Prosecuting Race” in Chapter 5
Fundamental attribution error
One can acknowledge the possibility of differences in behavior (ex. group differences in likelihood of illegal behavior) without making the error of blaming the people who engage in the illegal behavior when knowing that there are environmental explanations
“when a white person commits a crime it is often seen as an individual failing, but when a black person commits a crime it is viewed as an indication of the broader failings of black Americans in general”
Implicit racial bias
Prosecutors may view crimes committed by black people as more serious than the same offenses committed by otherwise identical white people … they interpret them as indications of deeper community-wide social pathologies that need to be “controlled.”
May see their more aggressive response as a social good, even if not consciously aware of it
Prosecutors do not face constraints that other people in the CJS face (like sentencing guidelines for judges or consent decrees for police stops), even though they have the same biases
The US is home to ___% of world’s population but ____% of prisoners
5%
25%
What does “3,144 stories of prison growth” mean in Pfaff?
Pfaff is talking about how the prison system is at the local level, not the federal level; 3,144 counties
T/F: The federal government, according to Pfaff, runs the single largest prison system
“The federal government runs the single largest prison system, but several states have systems that are fairly close to the federal one in size, and if we look at total populations under some sort of correctional observation (not just prison, but also jail, parole, and probation), the federal government quickly falls out of first place.” (Pfaff, 2017)”
Figure 1.2 of Pfaff, at its peak, approximately what percentage of the state prison population (between 1980-2013) was incarcerated for drug offenses?
22%
Race Matters Pfaff
Standard Story is that disproportionate numbers of Black and Brown people in prison are because of drug crimes and because disparities in enforcement than offending
only about 16% are in prison or drug charges
“If we released everyone in prison in 2013 whose top charge was a drug offense, the white percentage would rise by one point (from 35 to 36 percent), the black percentage would fall by one point (from 38 to 37 percent), and the Hispanic percentage wouldn’t change.”
Second is surprising if true because of exclusion from primary labor markets
not FAE because he is acknowledging environmental reasons
Pfaff’s discussion of prosecutorial guidelines and school-zone enhancements, consider implications for guidelines that restrict prosecutors’ discretion (what does Pfaff say about it?)
School-zone enhancements → create a sanction for selling drugs close to a school; minorities usually live closer to schools; disparate racial impact
“Seventy-six percent of urban Newark, for example, falls within a school zone, compared to just 6 percent of rural Mansfield Township.66 Members of minority groups who sell drugs are thus more likely to do so within a school zone than (less urban) whites are, even if they are not trying to sell to schoolchildren.”
Being in a school zone makes the punishment worse and most urban places are in school zones
Goff et al. A Study 1
When primed with Black male faces Ps were quicker (took fewer frames) to identify ape images with a degraded objects paradigm than participants primed with white faces and not primed
3 race primes (B, W, None) x 2 race of P (White, Non-W) x 2 animal type (Ape, Non-Ape)
no effect of P race
Black → ape
as if something was facilitating the response (Black faces sped up responses to ape images)
as if something about white-faced inhibited identification of Ape images
Goff et al. A Study 2
white Ps given dot-probe task when primed with ape they were quicker to see Black faces
ape → Black
dot-probe task
Ps quicker to see flash on Black side when primed with ape → attentional bias
with no prime people more quickly saw the white faces → white faces holding holding attention in absence of prime
what do Goff et al. A Study 1 and 2 establish? Why does it matter?
showing it’s bidirectional
It matters because strong mental associations tend to be bidirectional
Goff et al. A Study 3
presented Ps with Black male faces and Asian male faces (redid study 2 but with Asian instead of W faces)
showed it wasn't just a dehumanization of outgroup faces, but a specific attentional bias toward Black male faces
Goff et al. A Study 4
IAT
measures difference in reaction time to see implicit associations
people were faster with Black + bad than Black + good
then, they did the dehumanizing IAT
replaced “I don’t like/I like” with apes vs big cats
used big cats to see if:
Black-ape association was occurring or Black-danger
Black-ape association was occurring or Black-Africa
people were faster to categorize when Black associated with ape than other animals
effect they see on dehumanizing IAT exists when when controlled for personalized IAT (controlling even for liking/disliking Black people)
ape-Black association is NOT merely due to:
positive/negative associations
not greater associations to Africa nor violence
Goff et al. A Study 5
when people encounter situations where Black people are subjugated to force by police are their opinions shaped by dehumanization?
Ps → white
design 2 (animal prime type : apes, big cats) x 2 (race o target)
they put a pic of a Black/White person and told them it was who was being beaten
video was v grainy which allowed them to manipulate race
W Ps with primed with ape-words saw use of force against B target as more justified
Lin et al. (2021) (researchers in the lab)
researcher finds something in the lab and then comes up with a theoretical explanation to explain it
then they go back to study theories
mutual internal validity
internal validity we have basis for our theory
however,
testing phenomenon and proving it in the same space
theory no longer describes phenomena outside the lab
Goff et al. A Study 6
tested theory outside of lab (what Lin et al. say to do!)
looked at different media outlets about death-eligible cases
black defendants were more likely to be referred to with dehumanizing words in press
B defendants put to death were more likely to have been described with ape-relevant words
not causal
What do Goff et al. A Studies 5-6 serve to do?
Shows why these associations matter
mental accessibility of dehumanizing associations leads to more support of state violence against B people
Goff et al. B Study 1
examined race and person perception
race and gender are mutually constitutive
gender can affect how we categorize by race and vice versa
for male faces race doesn’t make a difference
for female faces, race matters for categorization
Black female faces were more likely to be miscategorized as males
black females more likely to have gender miscategorized
Goff et al. B Study 2
Movie clips
more category errors only for Black women
both for racial errors and for gender categorization errors
Goff et al. B What is mediating the relationship between race and attractiveness for Black women?
ratings of masculinity
Black women were seen as more masculine and thus less attractive
Steele and Aronson (stereotypes and tests)
they found a difference in performance on GRE questions only when stereotype threat existed (adjusted for SAT)
stereotype threat was adjusted by saying the test was:
diagnostic → questions can assess intellectual ability
nondiagnostic → just a problem solving test
Segal (2017) → why should we use computer algorithms for access to medical programs?
a physician may feel afflicted and more responsible to patient’s well being
duty of easy rescue
in following instinct to do goof for a single patient, it can create inequitable distribution of goods in population as a whole
those who have access to better doctors could have access to better programs
computers not constrained by conflicts and cognitive errors
calibration bias
and what does this mean?
E[Y|R,W] = E[Y|R,B]
whether there is a racial bias is in calibration of a risk assessment tool
calibration → whether realized value of some variable of interest Y matches risk score R
E[Y|R,W] → expected likelihood given a score or R for a W (white) patient
≠
E[Y|R,B] → expected likelihood for a Black person with the same risk score, what is the likelihood of diseased
expectation of health risk, given a particular score, should be identical for White and Black (they’re not the same though because people differ in treatment based on race = calibration bias)
stereotype threat
being at risk of confirming, as a self characterisitc, a negative stereotype about one’s group
worried stereotype will be applied to you
worry you will confirm the stereotype
Explain Figure 1A from Obermeyer et al.
this figure shows calibration bias
Black curve sits higher than White curve → Black individuals are sicker than W individuals with the same risk score
B curve sits to left of W curve → B counterparts who are equally unhealthy to W are not referred to screening
Explain Figure 3A from Obermeyer et al.
shows what algorithm score does predict in an unbiased manner (it was designed to predict health costs, and then those health costs are used to determine entry into program)
health costs predicted equally well
the thought process was those who spend more money=more unhealthy
medical costs were used as a proxy (stand in) for health risk
Explain Figure 3B from Obermeyer et al.
When you plot medical costs against the number of chronic illnesses you see at each level of chronic illnesses Black individuals have higher medical costs
could be because of barriers to access to health care
fewer clinics in B neighborhoods, lack of trust, diagnostic and treatment biases = lessspending on medical needs
THPs of Obermeyer et al.
algorithm does what it’s supposed to do: assign risk scores to patients with similar medical costs
BUT
Black patients have lower medical costs than W patients of similar health/illness
SO… Black patients are assigned lower risk scores than W patients of similar health/ illness
Lower risk scores means that B patients of similar need to W patients have lower likelihood of being screened for / defaulted into programs
Shih et al. (1999) (og stereotype threat/boost)
Asian American/Asian Canadian female participants
3 conditions in all conditions → demographic questions but content differs
Asian identity salient
demographic questions about Asian identity
Female identity salient
demographic questions about female identity
no identity condition
control, demographic questions respond to no particular ID
They found that Asian-American women performed better on a mathematics test when their ethnic identity was activated, but worse when their gender identity was activated, compared with a control group who had neither identity activated.
small sample size so they needed replication → Gibson et al!
Gibson et al. (stereotypes)
attempted to replicate the US pattern
effects like Shih et al US’s were replicated but only when excluding Ps who were unaware of the stereotype
interpretation: stereotype threat/lift depends on conscious awareness of stereotypes
Sackett et al. (2004) (adjusted for SAT score)
if Steele and Aronson had not adjusted, the means would be farther apart in both conditions, just less so in nondiagnostic condition
inequalitites overlooked if one just focuses on stereotype threat
like unequal oppurtunities, schooling, redlining
Nguyen and Ryan (2008) stereotype threat meta analysis
meta analysis → a quantitative review of studies on a given topic
found threat effect occurs on average
for both race and gender-based stereotypes there were stereotype effects
but… Zigerell (2017)
Zigerell (2007) → publication bias
obtained Nguyen and Ryan’s dataset to run his own analysis
publication bias
when a researcher is less likely to submit nonsignificant results
when a publisher wants to publish just significant results
he finds the size of effect of stereotype was bigger in less precise studies than more precise studies (that should be more trustworthy)
also finds some publication bias
cautious on how much stereotype threat matters
advice
more preregistered studies → Researchers before starting studies commit to certain things (sample size, hypothesis, how you will analyze the data)
pre-committing to research plan so they can’t bias results
preregistered report→ agree on plan
Hoffman et al. Study 1 (medical)
people encountered Black/White target and measured extent people believe certain myths about biological differences between B and W people
the more they endorsed it, they more they treated people differently based on race
rated pain less
Hoffman et al. (medical) Study 2
medical students same thing occurs
encountered B/W people and treatment recommendations were based on the beliefs people had because of race
Hoffman et al. (false beliefs) Take home points
beliefs in these racial medical myths occur in normal people and medical students
these beliefs matter, increase in beliefs led to decrease in the belief of Black people’s pain
Brown et al. (guilt and shame)
guilt → more other focused
shame → self image
if we’ve done something wrong it’s about how WE look
shame predicted support for reparations cross-sectionally
with effects mediated by desire to improve in group reputation
longitudinally, guilt was a better predictor of long term support for reparations
Boxill Reparations 2 arguments
counterfactual argument
inheritance argument
Boxill Counterfactual argument
alternative reality where you alter a feature
If Slavery never happened, African Americans would be better off than they would be if slavery occurred
Black people owed reparations because they’re worse off than they otherwise would be because of others’ wrongdoing and the purpose of reparations is to restore them to where they would be in the absence of harm
Version 1 → African Americans today are owed reoperations because they have been harmed by the legacy of slavery
no slavery no harm today
problem → without slavery, current day people wouldn’t exist
how could someone be owed reparations for something they wouldn’t exist without
it’s been centuries → is it plausible Af Americans today are still being harmed by something that ended 100 yrs ago
Version 2 → The harm is from more proximate subjugation that prevents Black people from recovering from negative effects of slavery
subsequent generations of African Americans have been denied reparations AND have continued to be actively harmed by the government and descendants of slave owners (implicit bias). These continued injustices have prevented and continue to prevent African Americans from recovering from slavery
Black people are owed reparations because the government CONTINUES to engage in racist practices that limit recovery from slavery
economic inequality → continuing effects of racial discrimination prevent people from recovering from slavery
Boxill Inheritance argument
Enslaved people at the time were owed reparations that they never got so now heirs are owed the reparations
inherit the debt
slaves owed compensation never paid to them and successive generations of Black people have inherited the claim of unpaid debt
Roberts et al. (2020) (analysis of articles from 1974-2018) methods
methodology
authors independently examined the same 20% of issues to identify empirical articles and then compared (for reliability)
then did all the other ones
same procedure to find the emprical publications focused on race
same procedure to code for racial composition of samples
same (except 3 authors) code for race of journal editors and lead authors
Roberts et al. (2020) (analysis of articles from 1974-2018) findings
developmental psych shows highlights race the most, then social psych, cog is basically 0
cognitive psychologists think their research is race-neutral
if this idea leads us to only sample white people, we’ll never know how race plays a role
when there were more editors of color at a journal, there tended to be more publications about race
authors of color had a higher proportion of non-white Ps than White authors
most of the articles published about race are by white authors
impact factors
some journals get cited more (high impact factors)
specialty journals have lower impact factors
if authors opt to submit work (either authors of color or studies about race) to specialty journals → cited less → could be hurting career
Figure 1 = research does not often highlight race in psych journals
Cognitive psychologists → understand universal processes (race-neutral)
Visual perception works for all people regardless of race → we don’t know if this is true if all authors are White
Figure 2 = most editors in chief are White
Publications highlighting race were more likely to appear in journals with people of color serving a editor in chief or on editorial boards
Specialty journals = low impact factors
Figure 3 = most articles that focus on race are published by White authors (trend change a little overtime)
Figure 4 = authors of color include a higher proportion of nonwhite participants compared to White authors
Roberts et al. Recommendations for authors
detail the racial demographics of samples
justify the racial demographics of samples
include constraints on generality statements (generalizability)
include positionality statements
temporal problem
when talking about historic injustices, the wrong occurred in the past. The wrongdoers and harmed people were in the past
not clear that there are people in the present how can do much about it
are people owed/have to give reparations for past things
backward-looking approach → inheritance argument
Hoffman et al. 1. Be ready to cite one or two specific examples of false beliefs about biological differences between Black and White people that at least 20% of first-year medical students endorsed. (See Table 1.)
Blacks age more slowly than whites
Black people’s blood coagulates more quickly than whites’
Blacks’ skin is thicker than whites
Blacks have a stronger immune system than whites
Explain Figure 2 of Hoffman
Figure 2A: → If someone has a high endorsement of false beliefs, they are more likely to rate Black patients' pain as lower than White people’s pain. However, if someone also has low endorsement of false beliefs, they are also more likely to rate Black patients’ pain as higher than White patients’ pain.
Figure 2B → Participants responded differently in terms of accurate treatment recommendation for Black vs. White patients. When false beliefs were highly endorsed, treatment accuracy for Black patients was lower than White patients.
public-sector actors Pfaff
Public sector unions made up of prison guards have incentive to fight for more prisoners to ensure job security
Legislators and citizens believe that prisons provide economic support to rural communities where they’re located – empirical studies say that the benefits are minimal to none but politicians still latch on
Geographical problem
Rural counties have incentive to fight for tougher sentencing laws b/c of US census
Census problem
Politics of punishments – powerful figures have incentive to remain tough on crime
False positive problem
Note 
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