Economists will never shrink from explaining a social phenomena using the tools of the trade. Stephen Morris of Yale’s published a game theoretic explanation of “Political Correctness” (which he defines as altering your message so you’re not perceived as a bigot).
The idea here is that you want to influence policy, but if you speak “truthfully” you’re branded as a racist. (It would appear, given the examples in the paper that the author of the paper is against affirmative action), so you have to alter your communications strategy in order to be taken “seriously”. This paper is an example of a ‘signaling game’ where the player is trying to demonstrate they are a worthy trading partner, service, etc.
The interesting result in Morris’ model is that as the number of racists in the game decline, so does the need to speak in “PC” terms in order to be taken seriously. So, instead of kveching about PC talk, go confront racism. You can tell your local bigot that by dropping his old beliefs, they can help put an end to the need for “PC” speech.
Morris’ paper can be found on his Yale web site. [PDF]
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