New research suggests that we may demand greater respect from some people than others. Jennifer Kubota and colleagues asked research subjects from a variety of racial backgrounds to make repeated decisions in an ultimatum game. Along with each offer, they saw a photo of the person who was making the offer on a computer screen. They made 160 decisions, including offers from 60 White men and 60 Black men, as well as 40 offers from men of other races. Subjects had to decide whether to accept the money or to reject it, in which case neither partner received anything. Most importantly, subjects received identical offers on average from Black and White partners.

The study found a small but statistically significant racial bias. Subjects rejected about 2 percent more offers from Black partners than White partners overall. The individuals who were most discriminatory were the ones who scored highest in racial bias on an implicit test that measured how quickly subjects associated Blacks and Whites with pleasant and unpleasant words. These effects are relatively small, but the important new insight in this study is that the authors have found a way to quantify the price people are willing to pay to discriminate. Every rejected offer costs the subject money.