How A 16-Year-Old Psychology Experiment Predicted the Harvard Lawsuit on Asian-American Discrimination
People are psychologically wired to empathize less with groups considered highly competent

As if to provide the perfect textbook example of the findings from a 2002 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a group of Asian-Americans filed a lawsuit again Harvard for systematically rating Asian-Americans lower on personality scores to limit attendance. The Justice Department now backs the lawsuit stating, “Harvard has failed to carry its demanding burden to show that its use of race does not inflict unlawful racial discrimination on Asian-Americans.”
Social psychology provides a wealth of research on how people perceive warmth and competence in relation to perceptions of status and competition in different groups of people. One study in particular found that groups considered to be highly competent are also seen as less warm and less likable — namely Jews and Asians:
“Anti-Semitic notions of a Jewish economic conspiracy exaggerate Jews’ stereotypically feared competence, whereas views of them as self-serving portray them as not warm. The modern American equivalent, Asians — who are viewed as the model minority — are seen as too competent, too ambitious, too hardworking, and, simultaneously, not sociable.”
Note the statement above quotes directly from a study conducted 16 years ago. Just like Harvard admissions, a group of people in an experiment from nearly 2 decades ago scored Asian-Americans lower on sociability.
Fast forward to 2018. A court filing from the Students for Fair Admissions reads:
“Harvard today engages in the same kind of discrimination and stereotyping that it used to justify quotas on Jewish applicants in the 1920s and 1930s,”
Stereotypes drive the misconception that all Asian Americans are highly educated and financially well off. Society groups distinct Asian ethnic groups together into a monolithic lump and presents a high average income and education level as truth for the entire population. The Model Minority Myth directly results in society perceiving Asian-Americans as competitors who are too competent, thus making them seem less likable, warm and sociable.
Think about it. A country’s top school systematically scored Asian-Americans lower on personality traits to bar them from admissions. Clearly, it’s unfair, but does it elicit much sympathy? Probably not.
However, the groups hurt most by model minority biases aren’t the kids applying to Harvard. It’s the Asian-Americans who could have never gotten into the applicant pool in the first place.
At first glance, it does seem like Asian-Americans have the highest income and education levels — until you disaggregate the data. Vietnamese (13%), Cambodians (18%), Hmong (27%) and Laotians (12%) primarily entered America as refugees and have some of the highest rates of poverty among Asian-Americans. Unsurprisingly, Asian-Americans suffer the largest income gap in the country.
The Harvard lawsuit brings light to the even larger issue of how the Model Minority Myth disproportionately hurts underprivileged Asian-Americans. Psychology shows that underprivileged Asian-Americans are the least likely to gain attention and sympathy since they are perceived to be unlikeable competitors. Rather than pity, a sense of envy prevails in perceptions of groups seen as highly competent, justifying a decreased ability to empathize.
Throughout popular media, there’s an unspoken but common notion that the extent of Asian-American discrimination is being asked “Where are you really from?” and people making fun of Asian accents — not “real” racism. The “model minority myth” invalidates the discrimination Asian-Americans face as a case of hurt feelings. This dismissal allows history to gloss over the fact that America imprisoned Asian Americans in internment camps during World War II. It’s why Asian Americans have the highest poverty rates in New York City but nobody realizes.
In 2010, Asian Americans had “the highest share of unemployed workers who were unemployed long term (for more than half a year) when compared with White, Black, and Hispanic workers”. Moreover, nearly half of all unemployed Asian Americans fell into this category. Three fourths of Asian Americans are foreign-born and 35% of them have limited English proficiency. Because the Asian accent is so heavily and negatively stigmatized into the Asian identity, stereotypes feed their way into job interviews.
Sociolinguists conducted a study to see how having a Japanese accent would affect people in job interviews. They divided people into groups that heard part of an interview with either a Japanese, British or American accented English and asked them to rate their perceptions. The researchers found that the stronger the Japanese accent, the lower they scored the applicants on status and attractiveness. If we extrapolate the notion that Americans generally cannot tell the difference between Asian accents, the results of this study may be generalized to all Asians.
Coupling the Harvard lawsuit with the booming popularity of the movie Crazy Rich Asians, underprivileged Asian-Americans are at even greater risk of erasure. The movie portrays exactly what its title describes: crazy rich Asians. The “model minority myth” not only masks their struggles and the discrimination they face, it’s now a major studio film. The “Crazy Broke Asians” are a minority within a minority who are the least likely to gain society’s attention and support because of society’s psychological wiring.
The Harvard Lawsuit makes clear the one challenge that universally affects all Asian-Americans no matter where they fall on the income gap: perception. The “model minority myth” directly causes people to be less likely to empathize with or even like Asian-Americans, disproportionately affecting underprivileged Asian-Americans in particular because of their vulnerable conditions. Knowing that underprivileged Asian-Americans are the most likely to be dismissed, the Asian-American community at large has the opportunity to give them a voice and provide support because no one else will — psychology tells us so. Let’s start talking about how.
