Beyond first impressions: Investigating the influence of visual attention and cue availability in discriminatory behavior

Abstract

In many contexts, the magnitude of discrimination in social judgment is determined by the level of sensitivity and bias in evaluation. However, little is known about factors that shape these processes. Using a mock admissions task, we investigated how variation in the time spent processing non-diagnostic social information (e.g., a face communicating attractiveness) versus decision-relevant information (e.g., information about candidate's qualifications) differentially impacted sensitivity versus bias, using both correlational eye-tracking (Study 1) and experimental approaches (Studies 2–3). Higher sensitivity (i.e., less judgment errors) was consistently related to the amount of time participants viewed decision-relevant information. However, bias (i.e., selection leniency based on attractiveness) was unrelated to the amount of time participants chose to view or were allowed to view faces. Bias emerged when faces were shown for as little as 350 milliseconds. The ease with which social information is encoded suggests that merely limiting its' presentation is ineffective for reducing discrimination.