a very powerful influence.” Aggressiveness, stubbornness, and deter-
mination can be a potent combination, quite apart from how knowl-
edgeable or well-prepared a panelist may be. “In some cases [fund-
ing] really depends on an individual hold-out. If that person didn’t
hold out, [a proposal could] get funded,” a sociologist attests.
Some evaluators downplay power dynamics, framing the role of
all panel members as consultative. An economist comments: “I didn’t
feel like it was gladiatorial combat. I wasn’t there to fight to the death
formyproposal...Iwastheretotrytogiveinput on stuff that was
closest to what I’m knowledgeable on.” He adds, “It’s not like Capitol
Hill [where you have to] bring home the bacon for your constitu-
ents.” For others, though, posturing is a useful way to make the peck-
ing order visible. Panelists who extensively trash proposals that they
know others like sometimes do so in order to flex their muscles and
openly assert their position in the pecking order of the panel. While
some view this behavior as wholly inappropriate, a political scientist
recognizes that other panelists often “get interested in the games that
are played around these things,” as though they were watching power
matches and following who makes points.
Of course, characteristics such as racial identity, seniority, and
gender strongly facilitate or hinder the accumulation of influence,
independent of personality and motivation. Social psychologists have
shown that people have clear expectations about the kinds of per-
formance and contributions that members of different gender and
racial identities will offer to a group. Low expectations for blacks and
women are typical.^39 This certainly may affect how academics ap-
proach the experience of serving on panels.
I did not find any specific instances where the racial identity of
panelists directly affected their influence on deliberations. The ab-
sence of data on the topic is hardly surprising given the very few peo-
ple of color who were involved in the panels I studied. Moreover,
those panelists may have been reluctant to mention experiences of
148 / Pragmatic Fairness