Attention as a Bottleneck in Moral Judgment: How Comparative Context Distorts Discrimination Recognition

It is commonly assumed that increasing diversity enhances fairness and equity. We examinewhether this assumption holds for the recognition of discrimination when multiple disadvantagedgroups are present. In a preregistered webcam-based eye-tracking experiment (N =1,159; U.S.-representative), participants evaluated hiring decisions in which focal minorityapplicants experienced identical levels of discrimination, while we varied who else appearedalongside them. Combining eye-tracking with judgment data, we distinguish two failuresof discrimination recognition: perceptual failures (insufficient attention to detect discrimination)and interpretive failures (detected discrimination is discounted). When other minoritiesare added to the evaluation context, success-stereotyped minorities become subject to bothperceptual and interpretive failures, whereas disadvantage-stereotyped minorities experienceonly interpretive failures. Paradoxically, these failures are driven primarily by egalitarian individuals.Our findings reveal a hidden cost of superficial diversity: increasing representationcan inadvertently mask discrimination against success-stereotyped minorities.