Human nature and judicial interpretation of equal employment law

✍ Scribed by Janet Spitz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 108 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0143-6570
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1468(199811/12)19:7/8<521::aid-mde895>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

Regional differences in judicial rulings on equal employment law are explored in the context of social identity theory. The notion of a human tendency to join status-based groups, socially identify with prominent group members, adopt the groups' shared mental models, and behave in ways to extend group influence, provides a good fit with judicial rulings observed in two US Federal Circuit Courts, the 7th and the 9th. To the extent such tendencies are natural and thus common across diverse populations, considerable specificity in policy language may be needed to offset interpretational localization emanating from regional belief systems held by locally prominent high status groups.