Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02170104
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED235415 AUTHOR: Northcraft, Gregory B.
TITLE: The Stigma of Affirmative Action: An Empirical
Analysis.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1983
NOTE: 22 p.; Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the
Rocky Mountain Psychological Association (Snowbird, UT,
April 26-30, 1983).
ABSTRACT: Attribution theory suggests that the existence of
affirmative action programs may lead individuals to assume
that a female or minority affirmative action appointee was
hired for reasons other than legitimate qualifications for
the job. This inference of incompetence could pose a
tremendous barrier to competent women or minority
individuals being recognized as such on the job. To explore
the possibility of an affirmative action stigma of
incompetence, 40 graduate students in management,
participating in a person perception experiment, were given
a job description, and resumes (previously screened for
suitability) for five individuals applying for the job.
Participants were asked to decide which qualifications
summary corresponded either to: (1) the new black investment
counselor; (2) the new black affirmative action appointee;
(3) or the branch manager's brother-in-law. Participants
also ranked the five candidates for how easy each would be
to get along with on the job. As predicted, when trying to
identify the resume of an affirmative action appointee,
subjects selected resumes extreme in qualifications, and
specifically the worst resume. The inference of incompetence
has implications for the practice of forced integration in
personnel selection. (Author/JAC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Employment-Qualifications; Equal
Opportunities-Jobs; Evaluation-Criteria; Graduate-Students;
Higher-Education; Labeling-of-Persons; Personnel-Selection;
Social-Cognition
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Affirmative-Action; *Attribution-Theory;
*Bias-; *Competence-; *Stereotypes-
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