Misreading the data: Moral convictions influence how we interpret evidence of anti-women bias

A recent study in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that individuals with strong commitments to gender equality are more likely to trust rigorous studies showing bias against women.

The study also points to a darker side: the same moral conviction can lead to biased reasoning, causing people to infer discrimination even when the evidence says otherwise.

Participants were asked to predict what they thought the results of a study would be, based on their expectations of gender bias in academia.

After making their predictions, participants were shown the actual results of the study, which either confirmed or contradicted their predictions.

Participants with higher moral commitment to gender equality were indeed more likely to accept the study’s faulty conclusion.

“Moral commitment to gender equality increases (mis)perceptions of gender bias in hiring,” study says.

Morality binds and blinds, says study by Hualin Xiao , Antoine Marie , and Brent Strickland .

The study was published in the journal Human Rights Studies .