Marketplace discrimination is a form of discrimination against customers engaged in shopping or purchasing goods or services. According to Harris, Henderson, and Williams (2005), the discriminatory treatment may involve overt or subtle prejudice and may result in outright denial or degradation in goods or services. Furthermore, customers may or may not be treated with criminal suspicion. While such discrimination experiences are prevalent according to surveys of African- and Hispanic-American shoppers, lawsuits against retailers and other commercial establishments are largely unsuccessful and shoppers may feel limited in the action they can take.
The purpose of the present study was twofold: first, to determine what characteristics of the discriminatory situation influence people's perceptions of the severity of cases of marketplace discrimination and second, to ascertain what actions they deem are appropriate following the discrimination incident. Approximately 1100 participants were randomly presented with one of 32 variations of a marketplace discrimination scenario that varied in the nature of the discrimination and the ethnicity of the victim. Participants rated the severity of the treatment, their emotional responses to the scenario, and the responses they thought the victim should have. Results are discussed in terms of the theories of aversive racism and liberation psychology.