I am interested in theories that predict discriminatory judgments and behavior depending on the amount of information (and/or its reliability) the actor can rely on. One example from Labor Economics is Statistical Discrimination, where actors (e.g. employers) use their knowledge about group averages (essentially stereotypes) to judge individuals in situations of imperfect knowledge (e.g. when hiring). Statistical Discrimination Theory predicts a higher influence of group stereotypes, the poorer the information about the individual (e.g. job candidate). How about theories and models from Social Psychology, such as dual-process models? How about other disciplines?
Indeed there are several models in social psychology that deal with this question such as the dual-process model of Brewer (1988), the continuum model of Fiske and Neuberg (1990), or the parallel-constraint-satisfaction theory of Kunda and Thagard (1996). Interestingly, the social judgeability theory (Leyens, Yzerbyt, & Schadron, 1992) predicts that stereotypes will not influence perception when no individuating information is present. In order for such effects to occur, the perceiver needs to feel entitled to judge the target, which may not be the case when no information at all is available.
I've written a book nine years ago on "Jurisprudence and stereotypes" (Interpretação jurídica e estereótipos. Porto Alegre: Sergio Antonio Fabris, 2003), and it discusses exactly the role of stereotypes in some situations just like criminal prosecution, Labor Law and even in accepting or rejecting concepts and definitions. There is another relevant question: where are stereotypes born? How much do they work in increasing information asymmetry?
The theory of monopsonistic discrimination states that profit-maximising employers will discriminate against those (groups of) individuals who are less likely to leave the firm, for instance due to higher search and mobility costs. This is of course only possible if employers have some information on the separation probabilities of individuals (or groups, say men vs. women). For details and an empirical application see the paper by Hirsch et al. in the Journal of Labor Economics 2010.
The discriminatory behavior of actors has no theoretical base as such. It is beyond the theories. It is rather difficult to theorize the behavior of the actors.
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