Double Meritocratic Standards

Fatma Sueda Evirgen  and Sigrid Suetens

Abstract

We investigate whether meritocratic principles are applied equally across ethnic backgrounds. In incentivized experiments with general-population samples in Germany and France, ethnicmajority participants decided on monetary transfers between two individuals—one from the ethnic majority, one from an ethnic minority group—whose performance on a cognitive test was known to differ. Across treatments, either could be the better performer. Holding performance constant, participants transferred 6.8 percent less from majority to minority individuals than in reverse, providing evidence of double meritocratic standards: identical productivity by minorities was rewarded less. Effects concentrate among middle-income participants or those with most negative attitudes to diversity.