Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2007
Status
Accepted
Abstract
Why do white men fear various risks less than women and minorities? Known as the white male effect, this pattern is well documented but poorly understood. This paper proposes a new explanation: identity-protective cognition. Putting work on the cultural theory of risk together with work on motivated cognition in social psychology suggests that individuals selectively credit and dismiss asserted dangers in a manner supportive of their preferred form of social organization. This dynamic, it is hypothesized, drives the white male effect, which reflects the risk skepticism that hierarchical and individualistic white males display when activities integral to their cultural identities are challenged as harmful. The article presents the results of an 1,800-person study that confirmed that cultural worldviews interact with the impact of gender and race on risk perception in patterns that suggest cultural-identity-protective cognition. It also discusses the implication of these findings for risk regulation and communication.
SSRN Link
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=995634
Recommended Citation
Donald Braman, Culture and Identity-Protective Cognition: Explaining the White Male Effect in Risk Perception, 4 J. of Legal. Empirical. Stud. 465 (2007).