Despite efforts toward equity in organizations and institutions, minority members report that they are often ignored, their contributions undervalued. Against this backdrop, we conduct a large-sample, multiyear experimental study to investigate patterns of attention. The findings provide causal evidence of a racial attention deficit: Even when in their best interest, White Americans pay less attention to Black peers. In a baseline study, we assign an incentivized puzzle to participants and examine their willingness to follow the example of their White and Black peers. White participants presume that Black peers are less competent—and fail to learn from their choices. We then test two interventions: Providing information about past accomplishments reduces the disparity in evaluations of Black peers, but the racial attention deficit persists. When Whites can witness the accomplishments of Black peers, rather than being told about them, the racial attention deficit subsides. We suggest that such a deficit can explain racial gaps documented in science, education, health, and law.

中文翻译：

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种族注意力缺陷

尽管在组织和机构中努力实现公平，少数成员报告说他们经常被忽视，他们的贡献被低估了。在这种背景下，我们进行了一项大样本、多年的实验研究来调查注意力模式。研究结果提供了种族注意力缺陷的因果证据：即使是为了他们的最大利益，美国白人对黑人同龄人的关注也较少。在一项基线研究中，我们为参与者分配了一个激励性谜题，并检查他们是否愿意效仿白人和黑人同行的榜样。白人参与者认为黑人同龄人的能力较差——并且无法从他们的选择中学习。然后，我们测试了两种干预措施：提供有关过去成就的信息可以减少对黑人同龄人的评价差异，但种族注意力缺陷仍然存在。当白人可以目睹黑人同龄人的成就而不是被告知他们时，种族注意力缺陷就会消退。我们认为，这种缺陷可以解释科学、教育、健康和法律中记录的种族差距。