Selection procedure and responses to affirmative action

Although it has been recognized that a large number of issues linked to the social policy of affirmative action are of a social psychological nature, research investigating such issues has not considered the social psychological importance of implementation procedures. Social policy analysts have differentiated implementation procedures on the degree to which they include relevant achievement criteria. In the present research this differentiation is couched within the theoretical framework of procedural justice and is utilized to critique the work of Austin et al. (1977). These researchers investigated the responses of individuals favorably treated in an affirmative action like situation and conclude that affirmative action is evaluated as absolutely unfair by these individuals. Based on the critique, a 2 (qualifications)×2 (history of discrimination)×2 (procedure) role play experiment was conducted. The results of the experiment unambiguously support the hypothesis that implementation procedure will greatly affect a variety of individual responses such as general affect, evaluations of procedural fairness, evaluations of outcome fairness, and evaluations of a relevant subunit of the involved institution.This article is based in part on a dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. Special thanks are extended to the members of the dissertation committee, Drs. John Thibaut (Chair), David Eckerman, Chester A. Insko, Lynn Kahle, and John Schopler.