Labour Economics and Social Cognition
The focus of the research within LESC is on the study of discriminatory behaviour in economic arenas, especially in the labour market, using the Correspondence Testing method (CT), and on the search for explanations for this behaviour using models from social psychology.
In the social psychology studies, the individual’s implicit attitudes and work-related stereotypes are in focus, and these are measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The research group exclusively uses experimental methods, either in the field or in the lab, and the subjects in focus are either employers/recruiters (in the field) or students (in the lab). An important next step for the group is to combine, in one study, the CT and IAT methods, which has never been done before. Preliminary results indicate that this combination will lead to important insights. In addition, studies will be conducted on employers' evaluations of job seekers' psychological profiles (for instance competitive versus warm) and how this evaluation varies for different demographic groups and between occupations.
The creation of the LESC research unit has been financed by Forskningsrådet för arbetsliv och socialvetenskap (FAS, www.fas.forskning.se), Institutet för arbetsmarknadspolitisk utvärdering (IFAU, www.ifau.se) and the University of Kalmar. The research unit, which started on 1 January 2006, consists of four researchers, two in labour economics and two in social psychology (cognition), and a number of assistants (see below).
The LESC group members have presented their research both nationally and internationally at conferences in Lund, Stockholm, Verona, Prague, London, Bonn, Chicago, Oslo and Amsterdam.
Despite the short existence of LESC, their research has been highlighted several times in the media and has been published in both national and international journals.
Dan-Olof Rooth
Research director
In the media:
”Arbetsgivare väljer bort arabiska namn”, Dagens Nyheter 6 November, 2006.
First news on TV4 morning news Friday the 13 July, 2007.
”Majoritet tror att överviktiga är lata”, Dagens Nyheter 21 September, 2007.
Long-term members:
Jens Agerström
Magnus Carlsson
Rickard Carlsson
Assistants:
Klara Johansson
Terese Johansson
Markus Mowitz