Procedural Implications of Affirmative Action: Perceptions and Attitudes Toward the Policy and Its Beneficiaries

The present study examined the effects of race, sex, role, and policy type on the attitudes toward affirmative action and its beneficiaries. Specifically, this study investigated attitudes toward the fairness of affirmative action policies and the perceptions of competence of the beneficiaries. Participants included 394 African American and Caucasian American men and women undergraduate students from Old Dominion University and Hampton University. Participation involved reading a vignette in which they would imagine themselves in the role of either a beneficiary of an affirmative action program or a coworker of an affirmative action beneficiary. Furthermore, participants in both roles would read a vignette describing a specific policy (quota type selection, "plus factor" selection, or diversification efforts) by which the beneficiary was recruited. The students would then respond to a questionnaire concerning fairness and competence issues surrounding the different policy types of affirmative action. Extra credit was given to those who participated. Analysis of variance procedures examined the effects of policy type, sex, race, and role (i.e., coworker or beneficiary). The research found that different implementation procedures of affirmative action have differential effects on perceptions of fairness. In addition, it was also found that affirmative action policies differentially impacted the perceptions of competence held by both the coworkers of the beneficiary, and the beneficiaries themselves, thus supporting the hypotheses and previous research. The results indicated that quota type selection procedures provoke perceptions of unfairness and incompetence, while policies that put forth an effort to diversify the workplace evoke more positive attitudes toward fairness and competence. African Americans and Caucasian Americans indicated significantly different attitudes regarding fairness, competence, and the necessity of affirmative action programs.