I have examined the importance of hierarchy-enhancing myths in perpetuating unequal relations between groups. SDT has historically included hierarchy-enhancing myths as a vital part of hierarchy maintenance. In my work, I examine the hierarchy-reinforcing myth that social progress is a natural and inevitable consequence of the passage of time, which can lead individuals to believe there has been significantly more progress in achieving racial equality than what is supported by evidence. For example, this belief in racial progress leads individuals to underestimate how large the racial income and wealth gaps currently are in the United States (Kraus et al., 2019). We have found that while people make more accurate estimates with manipulations that incentivize accuracy or diminish the role of math in their calculations, these underestimates of racial economic inequality are extremely robust (Kraus, Hudson, & Richeson, 2021). People are also inaccurate when estimating gender economic inequality as well as intersectional economic inequality (i.e., racial and gender inequality combined), with a lack of awareness that White men have significantly more wealth and income than Black and Latina women compared to White and Asian women.

I am especially interested in the specific socio-cognitive mechanisms that lead individuals to assume there has been much more racial progress than is true. One set of studies considering this question examines the role of perceived societal mobility in people’s estimates of racial economic inequality. When we present people with evidence that general economic inequality is (and has been) rising in the United States, they become more skeptical about the ability to advance in American society through hard work due to the presence of structural barriers. Such skepticism, in turn, appears to lead people to generate more accurate estimates of racial economic gaps. This work is consistent with the idea that beliefs in meritocracy, and American Dream ideology, can lead to tolerance, if not justification, of societal inequality. Understanding the socio-cognitive mechanisms that underlie these inaccurate beliefs is one step toward more accurate assessments that can lead to support for equitable policies.

Another socio-cognitive mechanism I am currently investigating is the subjective experience of time—e.g., perceptions on how recent or long ago the fight for Black Civil Rights in the United States was—to test the role of perceived racial progress directly. If the passage of time, and the subsequent perceived racial progress that comes with it, support people’s underestimates of racial inequality, then manipulations to make past racial inequality seem more recent should also make current racial economic estimates more accurate. Similarly, I am investigating whether people tend to activate high-status, rather than more prototypically or even stereotypically low-status, Black exemplars when they are asked to estimate racial economic inequality. Recalling high-status Black exemplars when estimating racial progress can support (inaccurate) perceptions of racial progress through a belief that society is fair because there are numerous wealthy Black individuals. Finally, I will investigate the consequences of people’s racial wealth estimates on both relevant policy support (e.g., support for baby bonds and redistributive wealth) and individual behavior (e.g., preference for racially homogeneous workspaces). Finally, I am investigating the sociocontextual factors that undergird people’s reactions to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in America with Dr. Jennifer Richeson and Dr. Michael Kraus. In particular we are focusing on the relationship between the diversity represented in people’s local contexts and their overestimation of racial progress.

In a separate line of work, I have examined a new construct called Economic Dominance Orientation (EDO), a measure designed to assess a general preference for an anthropocentric and hierarchical arrangement between humans, nonhuman animals, and the natural environment (Uenal et al., under review).

Papers in progress include:

1. Exposure to rising societal economic inequality reduces the misperception of racial economic inequality (writing draft)
2. The Misperception of Gender Economic Equality (writing draft)
3. The role of race in Americans’ misperceptions of gender economic equality (writing draft)
4. High-status exemplars and the misperception of the Black-White wealth gap (collecting data)
5. Time as progress: Temporal recency of historical racism as a mechanism for accurate estimates of racial economic progress (project with a thesis student; collecting data)