“I think it, therefore it's true”: Effects of self-perceived objectivity on hiring discrimination

Eric Luis Uhlmann (1) , Cohen Geoffrey (2)

1 Kellogg School of Management
2 Department of Psychology

A sense of personal objectivity may prompt an “I think it, therefore it's true” mindset, in which people assume that their own beliefs and introspections are, by definition, valid and therefore worthy of being acted on. In the present studies, priming a sense of personal objectivity increased gender discrimination, particularly among decision-makers who endorsed stereotypic beliefs or who had stereotypic thoughts made cognitively accessible through implicit priming. Implications for discrimination in organizational contexts, and for theories of attitude–behavior consistency, are discussed.

Mots clés: Hiring evaluations; Workplace; Discrimination; Objectivity; Naïve realism

Domaines: Management des ressources humaines

Eric Luis Uhlmann, Cohen Geoffrey. “I think it, therefore it's true”: Effects of self-perceived objectivity on hiring discrimination. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2007, Vol.104, n°2, pp.207-223. ⟨10.1016/j.obhdp.2007.07.001⟩. ⟨hal-00516600⟩