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    Statistical discrimination can be epistemically rational:... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Employers are legally prohibited from making hiring decisions based on statistical generalizations about protected groups, even when those generalizations are statistically sound.

    Statistical discrimination can be epistemically rational: Phelps (1972) shows group data is legitimate evidence when individual signals are noisy or costly.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.When individual-level information is expensive or unavailable, using group statistics is a rational Bayesian update given available evidence.
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    • 2.Excluding predictive group data artificially constrains decision-making and can lead to worse outcomes for both groups and individuals.
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    • 3.Epistemic rationality (using best available evidence) is distinct from ethical permissibility; rational beliefs need not justify all actions.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Individual signals are often obtainable at modest cost; relying on group data reflects preference rather than true unavoidability.
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    • 2.Group statistics reflect historical inequalities and compound discrimination; using them perpetuates rather than merely responds to noise.
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    • 3.Rational epistemology requires interrogating whether group proxies measure what's relevant or merely encode proxy discrimination.
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    Related

    Employers are legally prohibited from making hiring decisions based on statistic...Epistemic rationality (using best available evidence) is distinct from ethical p...Excluding predictive group data artificially constrains decision-making and can ...Group statistics reflect historical inequalities and compound discrimination; us...
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    Individual signals are often obtainable at modest cost; relying on group data re...Rational epistemology requires interrogating whether group proxies measure what'...When individual-level information is expensive or unavailable, using group stati...

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