Two Strikes

TLDR

Racial disparities in school discipline disproportionately affect Black students, contributing to school failure and potential incarceration, yet the psychological mechanisms behind these disparities remain unclear. The study tests whether racial stereotypes drive teachers to increasingly negative responses toward Black students across multiple encounters, and argues that race influences behavior interpretation and pattern detection over time, with implications for real‑world settings. Two experiments examined how racial stereotypes lead teachers to escalated negative responses to Black students across successive interactions.

Abstract

There are large racial disparities in school discipline in the United States, which, for Black students, not only contribute to school failure but also can lay a path toward incarceration. Although the disparities have been well documented, the psychological mechanisms underlying them are unclear. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that such disparities are, in part, driven by racial stereotypes that can lead teachers to escalate their negative responses to Black students over the course of multiple interpersonal (e.g., teacher-to-student) encounters. More generally, we argue that race not only can influence how perceivers interpret a specific behavior, but also can enhance perceivers' detection of behavioral patterns across time. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical benefits of employing this novel approach to stereotyping across a range of real-world settings.