FFF: N. Weinberger

Featured Former Fellow Lunchtime Talk: Naftali Weinberger, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

Signal Manipulation and the Causal Analysis of Racial Discrimination

ABSTRACT: Discrimination is, in part, a causal concept. To say that an individual was discriminated against based on race entails that her race made a difference to how she was treated. Yet demographic variables such as race elude standard causal analyses. Whereas one typically tests causal claims by manipulating one feature of an experimental setup while keeping others fixed, it is unclear whether one can sensibly talk of changing an individual’s race in isolation from her other properties. Those seeking to address this problem face a dilemma of either adopting more limited conceptualizations of race that allow it to be manipulated or more sociologically sophisticated ones on which it cannot be. To resolve this dilemma, I develop the signal manipulation approach. On this approach, one tests for discrimination not by manipulating race itself, but rather by manipulating the signals by which race influences discriminatory behaviors. I argue that my proposal is able to account for audit studies of discrimination better than alternative proposals and that it is compatible with understanding race as socially constructed. Additionally, the proposal helps differentiate between the cases where it is and is not fruitful to model race causally.

This will be an online-only event and registration is required.  Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UbFcyFpTTQW0ReTKG6LXeg