Awareness Programs and Change in Taste-Based Caste Prejudice

22 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2014

See all articles by Ritwik Banerjee

Ritwik Banerjee

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Nabanita Datta Gupta

Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

Becker's theory of taste-based discrimination predicts that relative employment of the discriminated social group will improve if there is a decrease in the level of prejudice for the marginally discriminating employer. In this paper we experimentally test this prediction offered by Becker (1971) in the context of caste in India, with management students (potential employers in the near future) as subjects. First, we measure caste prejudice and show that awareness through a TV social program reduces implicit prejudice against the lower caste and the reduction is sustained over time. Second, we find that the treatment reduces the prejudice levels of those in the left tail of the prejudice distribution - the group which can potentially affect real outcomes as predicted by the theory. And finally, a larger share of the treatment group subjects exhibit favorable opinion about reservation in jobs for the lower caste.

Keywords: caste prejudice, taste-based discrimination, implicit association test, laboratory experiment, media influence

JEL Classification: C91, O1, J15

Suggested Citation

Banerjee, Ritwik and Datta Gupta, Nabanita, Awareness Programs and Change in Taste-Based Caste Prejudice. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8446, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2502306 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2502306

Ritwik Banerjee (Contact Author)

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore ( email )

Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore, Karnataka 560 076
India

HOME PAGE: http://www.ritwikbanerjee.in

Nabanita Datta Gupta

Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University ( email )

Fuglesangs Allé 4
8210 Aarhus V
Denmark
+45 87165207 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/ndg@econ.au.dk

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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