Highlighting group disparities can reinforce the stereotypes they stem from

Evidence

Americans. In the aggregate, acting on these psychological inclinations can create worlds characterized by disparities between groups that mirror what is implicitly in our minds, even when those images are counter to our explicit goals and values. As a society, we build systems and structures that reflect and reinforce these biases. Ironically, when these disparities and the inequality that characterizes various systems are brought to the public’s attention, people can seize upon the disparities, potentially as “evidence” of the underlying stereotypes, and use them to double down on and rationalize the inequality (Hetey & Eberhardt, 2014; Peffley & Hurwitz, 2007). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 415

Categorization

• XREF: Core backfire-effect mechanism relevant to my question about whether correction against a threat-hardened belief backfires.
• QUESTION: Does the institutional-attribution remedy actually reduce the backfire shown by Hetey, Peffley, and Hurwitz, or does it merely relocate it?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 415