Discrimination

Discrimination refers to the differential treatment of people because of the social groups to which they belong. In this definition, differential treatment refers to any observable differences in behavior toward people who belong to different groups. Discrimination may emerge in verbal or nonverbal behavior, involve positive or negative acts, and stem from an actor's benevolent or malevolent intent of which he or she is or is not aware. People can be discriminated against on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion, age, nationality, immigrant and socioeconomic status, and many other bases. Discrimination, therefore, is said to occur when similarly qualified and/or behaving people are treated differently (e.g., receive different salaries, mentoring, eye contact), such that social group membership rather than individual attributes better explain differential treatment. ...