The White Ceiling Heuristic and the Underestimation of Asian-American Income

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Chris C. Martin, Emory University; John B. Nezlek, College of William & Mary
• Language: English
• Date: 2014
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2014 Martin, Nezlek.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108732
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: PLoS ONE
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 12
• Start Page: e116228
• End Page: e116228
• Grant/Funding Information: This research was supported by Graduate Research Grants from the College of William and Mary. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.; This article was partially funded from Emory University's Open Access Publishing Fund.
• Research Categories: Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies; Sociology, General

Abstract

The belief that ethnic majorities dominate ethnic minorities informs research on intergroup processes. This belief can lead to the social heuristic that the ethnic majority sets an upper limit that minority groups cannot surpass, but this possibility has not received much attention. In three studies of perceived income, we examined how this heuristic, which we term the White ceiling heuristic leads people to inaccurately estimate the income of a minority group that surpasses the majority. We found that Asian Americans, whose median income has surpassed White median income for nearly three decades, are still perceived as making less than Whites, with the least accurate estimations being made by people who strongly believe that Whites are privileged. In contrast, income estimates for other minorities were fairly accurate. Thus, perceptions of minorities are shaped both by stereotype content and a heuristic.