How do people justify their regrettable behavior to themselves – such as

discriminating against others on the basis of gender and race? We suggest that

a common strategy used to avoid the appearance of bias when making such

decisions is to cloak decision-making in more acceptable terms: when people

make decisions based on questionable criteria – such as gender – they scan

the environment for other less controversial attributes that can be recruited to justify their decisions. We demonstrate this general process in domains

ranging from racism in the legal system (Blacks being disproportionately

excluded from juries in trials with Black defendants) to gender discrimination

(women being passed over for traditionally “male” jobs), showing that in each

case, decision-makers are careful to find other mundane attributes to mask the

true reasons underlying their biased decision making.