Browsing by Subject "Discrimination"
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Item (2017-2018) Joint Resolution 5: In Support of Revising Univerisity Policies Regarding the Prohibition of Sexual Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assignment Assault, Sexual Misconduct, Interpersonal Violence, and Stalking(2018-02-13) Kang, Melissa; Mazin, Lubna; Roccograndi, Laura; Rendon, Judith; Braasch, Sydney; Bhandari, Kanika; Engel, Chair Natalie; Hoek, Conner VandenItem Academic and social influences of underrepresented adolescents' perceptions of opportunity and plans for the future(2016-08) Kyte, Sarah Blanchard; Riegle-Crumb, Catherine; Callahan, Rebecca M; Crosnoe, Robert; Muller, Chandra; Raley, KellySociologists of education have long stressed the importance of students’ expectations for their subsequent success. Yet, an insufficient amount of previous work has considered how academic and social psychological factors guide when and how students develop their expectations for the future, particularly for the socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority students attending our cities’ schools. By using rich survey and administrative data from a large, urban district serving low income and predominantly Hispanic and African American students, this dissertation identifies how these students develop expectations related to higher education in general as well as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in particular at the start of high school. Chapter 2 examines whether Hispanic girls hold higher college expectations than Hispanic boys because they acquire a superior toolkit of academic resources including achievement, attitudes, and relationships, and/or whether girls are better able to leverage these resources. Further, it considers the potentially gendered role of nativity, language-minority, and socioeconomic status in shaping college expectations among Hispanic students. Chapter 3 analyzes how students’ perceptions of the relevance of science outside of school contribute to gender differences in expectations to major in specific areas of STEM, namely the biological and physical sciences as compared with computer science and engineering. Chapter 4 unpacks the extent to which minority students expecting to major in STEM anticipate that gender- or race-based discrimination may act as a barrier to their goals. Taken together, the findings of these studies underscore the importance of perceptions related to schools, society, and opportunity at the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity for guiding students’ expectations, an important precursor to subsequent behavior and success.Item Camouflage detection & signal discrimination : theory, methods & experiments(2022-05-05) Das, Abhranil; Geisler, Wilson S.; Reichl, L. E.; Florin, Ernst-Ludwig; Marder, MichaelCamouflage is an amazing feat of evolution, but also impressive is the ability of biological visual systems to detect them. They are the result of an evolutionary arms race that exposes many detection strategies and their limits. In this thesis, we investigate the principles of human detection of maximally-camouflaged objects, i.e. whose texture exactly mimics the background texture. Chapter 1 introduces and contextualizes the problem. In chapter 2, we develop a theory and model that extracts the relevant information in the image, and uses biologically plausible computations on them for detection. In chapter 3, we present a series of experiments which measured human camouflage detection ability along different dimensions of the task, such as across different textures and shapes. Chapter 5 is a reference on some methods and analysis used in the study. Chapter 6 describes mathematical methods and software on statistical signal discrimination that we developed to solve questions in visual detection, but with wider applications in other fields.Item The causes and consequences of managerial discrimination among analysts during earnings conference calls(2006-08) Mayew, William James, 1974-; Jennings, Ross (Ross Grant)Item Chanda Parbhoo Interview(2022-10-17) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Chanda Parbhoo, an Indian-American organizer and immigrant from South Africa who lives in Dallas, TX. Chanda compares her early experiences of ethnic integration in Canada with her experiences of apartheid in South Africa. She also shares the challenges and prejudice her family experienced in Canada and the States. She describes the influence of her father’s business ventures and values on her childhood and career. Chanda talks about her activism for representation in her school district and for AAPI voting empowerment.Item Daniele Volfe Interview(2022-09-22) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Daniele Volfe, a Brazilian immigrant and immigration attorney in McKinney, Texas. Daniele describes coming to the US with her husband, a pastor, and her family’s process of getting settled in Texas. She talks about her education and her decision to become an immigration attorney. She shares her relationship with her Brazilian culture and compares it with her daughters’ experiences of their heritage.Item Discrimination and Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood(Education and Health Disparities Working Group, University of Texas at Austin, 2021-04) Benner, AprileItem Discrimination and well-being in adolescents' daily lives(Whole Communities-Whole Health Research Showcase, Austin, TX, 2020-12) Benner, AprileItem Discrimination in discipline : race and disciplinary action in US state prisons(2022-12-02) Humber, Amy Grace; Pettit, Becky, 1970-; Hailey, ChantalThis study uses nationally representative self-report data from the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates to examine the relationship between race and prison disciplinary action. Though ample research documents racial inequity in the criminal legal system, our understanding of race inside corrections facilities is limited. Disciplinary action within prison plays a prominent role in determining access to resources while inside and parole eligibility. Punishment is a prominent force within prisons, and there is evidence to suggest that surveillance and discretion based on race/ethnicity play a significant role in who and what actions receive discipline. The guiding questions of this research are: What is the nature of disciplinary action in state prisons? And what is the relationship between race/ethnicity and whether and how often people are disciplined while incarcerated in state prisons? Findings support that discipline is a routine occurrence within prisons, impacting over half of the prison population, and that Black people/people who are racialized as Black (Street Race Black) are at the greatest risk of being punished in prison. Some findings suggest that women are at greater risk of more frequent discipline than men and that intersectional inequalities play a role in how discretion operates to determine who gets disciplined and how often.Item Discrimination, language brokering efficacy, and academic competence in Mexican-American adolescents(2018-09-19) Chen, Shanting; Kim, Su Yeong; Benner, Aprile DDiscrimination is a significant risk factor for adolescents’ academic competence. However, the mechanism underlying this association is understudied. Guided by the integrative model of minority children’s development, this study examined whether a culture-specific factor, language brokering efficacy, mediated the relation between adolescents’ perceived discrimination and their academic competence. Two waves of data from 604 Mexican American adolescents (Mage.wave1 = 12.41, SD = .97, 54.3% female) residing in Central Texas were used. Path analyses showed that higher levels of discrimination were negatively related to adolescents’ language brokering efficacy for both mothers and fathers, which was then linked to lower levels of academic competence. Implications for intervening to reduce the negative impacts of discrimination are discussedItem Duriba Khan Interview(2019-03-04) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeItem Education, labor, and health disparities of racial and sexual minorities(2020-06-25) Delhommer, Scott Michael; Murphy, Richard J., Ph. D.; Trejo, Stephen J., 1959-; Oettinger, Gerald; Black, Sandra; Vogl, TomThe three chapters of this dissertation explore the applied economics of inequality in educational attainment, labor market outcomes, and sexual health for racial and sexual minorities. In the first chapter, I explore the role of same-race teachers reducing gaps in minority education, presenting the first evidence that matching high school students with same-race teachers improves the students’ college outcomes. To address endogenous sorting of students and teachers, I use detailed Texas administrative data on classroom assignment, exploiting variation in student and teacher race within the same course, year, and school, eliminating 99% of observed same-race sorting. Race-matching raises minority students’ course performance as well as improves longer-term outcomes like high school graduation, college enrollment, and major choice. My second chapter examines how public policy can reduce labor market inequality across sexual orientation. I present the first quasi-experimental research examining the effect of both local and state anti-discrimination laws on sexual orientation on the labor supply and wages of lesbian, gay, and bisexual workers. To do so, I use American Community Survey data on household composition to infer sexual orientation and combine this with a unique panel dataset on local anti-discrimination laws. Using variation in law implementation across localities over time, I find these laws significantly reduce inequalities in the labor supply and wages across sexual orientation for both men and women. The last chapter explores the moral hazard and health inequality implications of a life-saving HIV prevention drug, PrEP, for gay men. We document the first evidence of PrEP on aggregate STD and HIV infections. Using the pre-treatment variation in the gay male population, we show that male STD rates were parallel in states with high and low gay population before the introduction of PrEP and begin to diverge afterwards. However, HIV infections were consistently downwardly trending before PrEP with no break at the introduction of PrEP, making inference of the effect of PrEP on HIV infections difficult. Specifically, we show that one additional male PrEP user increases male chlamydia infections by 0.55 cases, male gonorrhea infections by 0.61 cases, and male syphilis infections by 0.03 cases.Item Essays on public economics and banking(2017-05) Cheng, Hua, Ph. D.; Abrevaya, Jason; Gawande, Kishore S., 1959-; Geruso, Michael; Murphy, Richard; Hamermesh, DanielThis dissertation presents two lines of research on public finance and banking respectively. The research on public finance explores the source of China’s state capacity, including fiscal capacity and the bureaucracy, and whether such state capacity promotes economic development. The research on banking discusses the discrimination in China’s bank loan markets, and the role of political connections and policy uncertainty in affecting bank risk-taking in the United States. My first chapter is about the state capacity in China. We offer a comprehensive study on the causal effects of state capacity in explaining China's spectacular economic growth, using rich historical variation and various outcomes in economic performance, education, health care, finance, and social unrest. Our estimates indicate that fiscal capacity has significantly positive impacts. However, a large size of bureaucracy plays a much weaker role, and it cannot reduce the incidence of protests, suggesting the existence of overstaffing in the public sector. The second chapter analyzes costly discrimination related to physical attractiveness and gender in bank loan markets using a market structure-based method. The rationale is that a concentrated market provides more space for loan officers to discriminate against a certain group of borrowers. We find that loan officers prefer good-looking people and males in relatively risky commercial/industrial loan markets. On the other hand, females and especially young good-looking females have an advantage in mortgage loan markets. We interpret these different patterns of favoritism as a result of differential risk levels associated with the two types of loans. The third chapter studies how political connections and their interaction with economic policy uncertainty affect banks' risk-taking. Our hypothesis is that policy uncertainty increases the option value of waiting but political connections can reduce such option value. We find when policy uncertainty is low, politically connected banks have a weaker tendency to take on more risk than those without political connections and enjoy the quiet life. However, when policy uncertainty is high, politically connected banks have much larger amounts of loans, but smaller amounts of loss provision than those without political connections.Item Exploitation in college sports : the amateurism hoax and the true value of an education(2019-05) Doane, Bill; Awad, GermineItem Exploring the relationship between fusion with a cause and essentialist thinking(2016-05) Fraser, William Thomas, IV; Swann, William B.; Josephs, Robert A; Henderson, Marlone D; Gomez, AngelSome people become so deeply bonded to various causes that their beliefs define who they are. This deep bond with causes can be understood within a framework of identity fusion. When individuals view a cause as a self-defining aspect of their identity, they feel a sense of underlying similarity—or shared essence—with other cause supporters based on their common beliefs. Because strongly fused individuals feel essentially similar to fellow cause supporters, they may likewise essentialize opponents of the cause by categorizing them into distinct “natural kinds” based on their ideological stance toward the cause. This tendency for essentialist thinking leads strongly fused individuals to discriminate against people who hold opposing beliefs about the cause. To test these ideas, I conducted 6 studies. Two studies showed that fusion with a cause predicted the tendency to essentialize others based on their sentiments toward the cause with which participants were fused (Study 1), but not other causes (Study 2). Three follow-up studies (Studies 3-5) demonstrated that fusion with a cause predicted discrimination against cause opponents, and that this effect was mediated by essentialist beliefs. Study 5 also showed that strongly fused individuals demonstrated intentions to attend events where they could antagonize cause opponents. Study 6 showed that fusion with a cause predicted political voting behaviors, but not as strongly as fusion with political party. Collectively, these studies identified a class of individuals who were prone to discrimination on the basis of ideology and the cognitive underpinnings of this predisposition.Item Homework, hostility, or happy hour? : testing predictors of domestic students’ attitudes toward international students(2020-06-22) Rabinowitz, Karina Dawn; Awad, Germine H.; McCarthy, Christopher J; Pituch, Keenan A; Thiagarajan, Monica SThe purpose of the current study is to better understand factors that influence U.S. domestic students’ attitudes toward and willingness to engage with international students. Despite increasing international student enrollment on U.S. university campuses (IIE, 2018) and international students’ well-documented frustration with campus culture (e.g., Ward, Boschner, & Furnham, 2005), there is an increasing need to better understand the factors that influence domestic students’ unenthusiastic, and occasionally antagonistic, reactions to the international community. The purpose of the current study is to test established predictors of prejudice against international students (i.e., intergroup anxiety, intercultural communication emotions, realistic threats, symbolic threats, negative stereotype endorsement, quantity and quality of contact, and social dominance orientation) as well as several individual level variables (i.e., gender, race, academic college) to better understand domestic student attitudes and inform future interventions aimed at supporting domestic-international student relationships. Hierarchical linear regressions were used to analyze data from four hundred and sixty-six domestic U.S. undergraduate students who responded to online surveys addressing these constructs. Results revealed that identifying as a woman and having experienced high-quality contact with international students predicted more positive general evaluations of international students. However, higher degrees of intergroup anxiety and intercultural communication emotions as well as higher quantity of contact with international students predicted a decrease in general evaluations. The current investigation also found that identifying as a woman, identifying as Latinx, and experiencing high-quality contact with international students predicted both academic and social willingness to engage with international students. Greater perception of realistic threats from international students and higher degrees of intercultural communication emotion endorsement predicted a decrease in willingness to engage socially and academically with international students. Implications for U.S. universities and future interventions are discussed.Item Identity, discrimination, and belonging : the Arab American Muslim experience(2022-08-15) Hashem, Hanan Mustafa; Awad, Germine H.; Ahmed, Sameera; Cokley, Kevin; Whittaker, TiffanyThis dissertation fills a significant lacuna in the literature exploring the experiences of emerging adults with minoritized identities, specifically Arab American Muslims. Arab American Muslims hold an ethnic identity (i.e., being Arab) and a religious identity (i.e., being Muslim) that are commonly conflated. This conflation can have an impact on their understanding of themselves (i.e., identity) and negative experiences from others (i.e., discrimination). Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) ties the meaning-making process that individuals partake in to understand their identity to its influence on their mental health outcomes. According to the cumulative racial/ethnic trauma model (Awad et al., 2019), Arab Americans experience chronic micro-level and macro-level factors of trauma, such as discrimination and issues of identity. Those factors, in turn, impact individual-level and group-level outcomes, including experiences of belonging and mental health outcomes. This dissertation utilized path analyses to examine the role of micro-level factors (i.e., discrimination and identity) in predicting an individual-level outcome (i.e., psychological distress) through a group-level outcome (i.e., belonging) as a mediator. The overall findings provided three main ideas which provide significant additions to the literature exploring the experiences of young Arab American Muslims. First, the findings provide evidence of an intersectional ethnic-religious discrimination experience but a distinction between ethnic identity and religious identity. Second, the main finding that provides an opportunity for further exploration is the significant role that religious identity centrality played in predicting belonging and distress for this sample while ethnic identity centrality did not play a role in these relationships. Third, the role of belonging stood out as an important meditator when explaining the religious identity-distress and discrimination-distress relationships for young Arab American Muslims. While this study’s use of path analyses provides support for these relationships, future research can further explore causal relationships between these key variables through longitudinal studies. Additionally, future studies can explore the impact of cultural-geographical differences, such as the impact of living in an Arab or Muslim epicenter, which may provide more nuance to the experience of this diverse group.Item The Impact of Legal and Administrative Remedies to Overcome Discrimination in Employment(Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, 1976-12) Marshall, Ray; Knapp, Charles; Liggett, Malcome; Glover, Robert W.Th i. s stud y examines the effectiveness of specific attempts to remedy employment discrimination against minorities through litigation and contract compliance efforts. Further, its objective is to identify factors underlying the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of court decisions and out-of-court settlements in producing changes in minority employment patterns. Special attention is given to the construction and shipbuilding industries and to the issues of hiring, union entry, upgrading, and seniority systems. To advance an understanding of the dynamics of combating employment discrimination, the authors present a new conceptual framework for interpreting activity in this field. Conclusions and recommendations are drawn which will be of interest to attorneys, judges, minority organizations, and government agencies attempting to remedy employment discrimination.Item In the face of litigation risk : how potential lawsuits shape employment decisions(2022-08-18) Shardlow, Thomas Edward; Burris, Ethan R.; Harrison, David A; Patil, Shefali V; Mayer, David MDespite the constant threat of litigation based on everyday business decisions, management scholars know little about how managers handle the potential for legal action. In this dissertation, I begin to examine the previously unexplored domain of litigation risk, which I define as the extent to which an actor believes that a specific decision is likely to result in a legal or legalized process that may carry extreme negative outcomes. Using a series of three experiments, I begin by demonstrating the distinctiveness of litigation risk from other previously identified domains of risk. I also differentiate litigation risk broadly from other constructs – ethical leadership and agreeableness – that might otherwise explain a person’s perception of and desire to avoid decisions involving litigation risk. I then begin to explore a particular instantiation of litigation risk: employment discrimination. Using a scenario-based study, I demonstrate that litigation risk is empirically distinct from other constructs that have been used to explain the underlying causes of workplace discrimination. I also show that the extent to which litigation risk is perceived differs between hiring, promotion, and termination decisions. Moreover, because litigation risk is more prevalent for members of minority groups, managers tend to avoid and/or mitigate it in ways that may negatively affect the law’s effectiveness in rooting out employment discrimination. Indeed, this paper provides evidence suggesting that the law may only shift the timing of discrimination rather than eliminate it altogether. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are then discussed.Item Intersections of discrimination and the prospective mental health of LGB youth and adults(2020-08-17) Mallory, Allen Burnell Sears; Russell, Stephen Thomas, 1966-; Benner, Aprile D; Goosby, Bridget J; Kim, Su Yeong; Meyer, Ilan HDiscrimination is a persistent risk factor for compromised mental health among sexual minority people. However, few studies examine the long-term implications of experiencing discrimination tied to multiple identities (e.g. race, gender, and sexual orientation) for the mental health of sexual minority youth (SMY) and adults. This dissertation included two studies that explored how discrimination tied to multiple identities was associated with the prospective mental health of SMY and adults. Both studies tested three intersectional hypotheses: the additive (i.e. multiple forms of discrimination incrementally worsen mental health), inuring (i.e. discrimination does not worsen mental health beyond one form), and multiplicative hypotheses (i.e. experiencing two forms of discrimination worsen mental health twice s as much as one form). Participants in Study 1 were a community sample of 478 SMY (ages 15-21) of color. Study 1 examined the overlap in LGB victimization and racial discrimination and their associations with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation over three years. In Study 2, participants were from a national probability sample of 1,518 LGB adults (ages 18-60) from three generations. Study 2 examined if attributions to discrimination were associated with psychological distress over two years. In Study 1, the results supported the multiplicative hypothesis for depressive symptoms. The intersection of racial discrimination and LGB victimization was associated with higher baseline depressive symptoms, and steeper declines in depressive symptoms. For suicidal ideation, racial discrimination and LGB victimization were independently associated with suicidal ideation, which supported the additive hypothesis. In Study 2, similar results were found, but they differed by dimension of discrimination—the multiplicative hypothesis was supported for baseline psychological distress when the number of contexts of discrimination was measured, and it was supported for the slope of psychological distress when the frequency of discrimination was measured. Lastly, the association between discrimination and psychological distress was stronger in the young compared to the older generation. The results from this dissertation provided novel information about the prospective associations between the overlap of multiple forms of discrimination and mental health for LGB youth and adults