Dangers of residual confounding: a cautionary tale featuring cognitive ability, socioeconomic background, and education

Background Cognitive ability and socioeconomic background (SEB) have been previously identified as determinants of achieved level of education. According to a “discrimination hypothesis”, higher cognitive ability is required from those with lower SEB in order to achieve the same level of education as those with higher SEB. Support for this hypothesis has been claimed from the observation of a positive association between SEB and achieved level of education when adjusting for cognitive ability. We propose a competing hypothesis that the observed association is due to residual confounding. Methods To adjudicate between the discrimination and the residual confounding hypotheses, data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97, N = 8984) was utilized, including a check of the logic where we switched predictor and outcome variables. Results The expected positive association between SEB and achieved level of education when adjusting for cognitive ability (predicted by both hypotheses) was found, but a positive association between cognitive ability and SEB when adjusting for level of education (predicted only by the residual confounding hypothesis) was also observed. Conclusions These results highlight the potential use of reversing predictors and outcomes to test the logic of hypothesis testing, and support a residual confounding hypothesis over a discrimination hypothesis in explaining associations between SEB, cognitive ability, and educational outcome.

Dangers of residual confounding: A cautionary tale featuring cognitive ability, socioeconomic background, and education

Cognitive ability and socioeconomic background (SEB) have been previously identified as determinants of achieved level of education. According to a “discrimination hypothesis”, higher cognitive ability is required from those with lower SEB in order to achieve the same level of education as those with higher SEB. Support for this hypothesis has been claimed from the observation of a positive association between SEB and achieved level of education when adjusting for cognitive ability. Here we propose a competing hypothesis that the observed association is due to residual confounding. To adjudicate between these hypotheses, we tested both on data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97, N = 8984), including a check of the logic where we switched places between predictor and outcome. We found the expected positive association between SEB and achieved level of education when adjusting for cognitive ability (predicted by both hypotheses), but we also observed a positive association between cognitive ability and SEB when adjusting for level of education (predicted only by the residual confounding hypothesis). Under the logic of the discrimination hypothesis, a contradictory interpretation emerges: higher cognitive ability is required from those with higher SEB in order to achieve the same level of education as those with lower SEB. These results highlight the potential use of reversing predictors and outcomes to test the logic of hypothesis testing, and support a residual confounding hypothesis over a discrimination hypothesis in explaining associations between SEB, cognitive ability, and educational outcome.

Religious discrimination in young Muslim assimilation in Spain: Contributions to Portes and Rumbaut’s segmented assimilation theory

This article aims to consider the role of religion in the integration process of children born to immigrants in host societies (second generation) in Spain using the theory of segmented assimilation of Portes and Rumbaut and Portes, Aparicio and Haller. It is based on an exploratory qualitative research project conducted in a medium-sized city in Catalonia that examined the integration of young people of different origins and the role religion played in this process. To do so, we proffer a religious discrimination hypothesis: a scenario in which Islam, but not other religions, can become a significant barrier to positive assimilation. According to the results, this ‘religious stigma’ scenario occurs in the majority of the young Muslims who were interviewed and across many aspects of their lives.

Melanin and Curls: Evaluation of Black Women Candidates

Research on candidate evaluation has delved into questions of how voters evaluate women candidates, Black male candidates, as well as how candidates’ appearances may condition electoral opportunities. Combined, this scholarship has tended to focus on how race, gender, and skin tone privilege or undermine evaluations of Black male or White women candidates. We intervene to study Black women candidates and draw on research on colorism and Black women's hairstyles and ask: How does variation in skin tone and hairstyle affect Black voter evaluations of Black women candidates? We develop and test two hypotheses: the empowerment hypothesis and the internal discrimination hypothesis. We mostly find support for the latter. Importantly, we find that the interaction of dark skin and non-straight hair has mostly negative effects on Black men and women's trait evaluations, but a positive effect on Black women's willingness to vote for the candidate. Furthermore, this research shows that hair texture is an important aspect of responses to Black women candidates—hair is not just hair for Black women candidates. This research shows that understanding the effects of candidate appearance on voter behavior necessitates considering the intersection of racial and gender phenotypes.

Discrimination, Genocide, and Politicide

The first generation of genocide scholars emphasized the role of discrimination in the onset of genocide and politicide. However, second-generation scholars discount such claims and have not found quantitative support for the discrimination hypothesis. We return to first-generation theories linking discrimination to genocide and politicide. We argue that while such policies set the stage for genocide, they do not influence the onset of politicide. This is because genocide is a policy aimed at eradicating the “other” while politicide is a policy designed to eliminate violent threat to the regime elites. Therefore, we encourage scholars not to conflate the logics of genocide and politicide. Statistical analysis of discrimination and government mass murder from 1955 to 2005 reveals that while some causes of genocide and politicide are similar, ethnic discrimination influences genocide but not politicide, as we expect.

Is Asking What Women Want the Right Question? Underrepresentation in Philosophy and Gender Differences in Interests

In discussions of the underrepresentation of women in professional philosophy, those sceptical of discrimination as an explanation often suggest that gender differences in interests are a plausible alternative hypothesis. Some suspect that if women’s differing interests explains underrepresentation, then interventions suggested by the discrimination hypothesis might be unnecessary—or even risky. I argue that one needs to consider how stereotypes might influence interests, and that doing so can provide a more even-handed assessment of the risks involved in proposed interventions.

By Any Other Name: Discrimination in Resume Screening

This chapter discusses perspectives and empirical findings on ethnic discrimination during the resume screening phase. First, the labor market position of ethnic minorities is discussed and two prominent hypotheses on the disadvantaged labor market position of ethnic minorities are presented, namely the human capital versus hiring discrimination hypothesis. Second, several theoretical perspectives are discussed that illustrate why resume screening might be vulnerable to biased decision making. Third, we turn our attention to influences on hiring discrimination that reside in the applicant, the job/organization, and recruiter. Finally, this chapter ends with a critical reflection on some practical recommendations (such as anonymous resume screening) and future research directions on hiring discrimination during resume screening, including new technologies such as video resumes.