Attitudes on Affirmative Action Targeted to Help Black and Hispanic Individuals

The current study explored various factors affecting affirmative action attitudes. Undergraduate students completed an online survey with measures assessing support for Black-targeted and Hispanic-targeted affirmative action, perceived discrimination against Blacks and Hispanics, social dominance orientation, and racial group esteem. Prior to completing these measures, some participants were randomly assigned to read a set of 10 facts about current racial inequities. Analyses revealed that affirmative action support was greater for outreach and training policies versus preference and quota policies, greater among participants who read the inequity facts versus the control group, greater among Black and Hispanic participants versus White participants, greater among White participants with low versus high White esteem, and greater among participants with low versus high social dominance orientation. Regarding demographics, support was also greater among Democrat and liberal participants versus Republican and conservative participants, greater among female participants versus male participants, and greater among sexual minority participants versus straight participants. Additionally, whereas Black participants did not differ in their support for Black-targeted versus Hispanic-targeted affirmative action, Hispanic participants supported Hispanic-targeted affirmative action more than Black-targeted affirmative action, even though they also gave higher ratings of perceived discrimination faced by Black individuals in comparison to Hispanic individuals. These findings are consistent with past research, social dominance theory (whereby Hispanic affirmative action support may be influenced by group status threat), and the altruism-born-of-suffering theory (whereby adverse discriminatory experiences of Black and sexual minorities may have led to greater empathic concern and support for affirmative action).