Scapegoating in evaluation decisions

摘要

Scapegoating & ndash; attributing inordinate blame for a negative outcome to a target individ-ual or group & ndash; is considered an important driver of discrimination by psychologists, but has received little attention by economists. This paper helps fill the gap by providing evi-dence for scapegoating in a natural setting. Using data on three million driving tests held in Israel, I find that an increase in the number of unrelated traffic accident fatalities leads driving testers to discriminate against out-group students. Scapegoating characterizes all groups of testers & ndash; Jewish and Arab, male and female & ndash; and works to increase ethnic in -group bias and decrease gender out-group bias.(c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.