Abstract Thinking Increases Support for Affirmative Action

Some Mistakes in Thinking about Affirmative Action*

Once I was a member of a university council that, among other things, played "watchdog" when decisions were being made regarding whom to appoint to high places in the univeristy administration. One of my colleague's favorite points was that if a candidate hedged with a "yes and no" or a "yes, but..." to the query, "Would you support affirmative action?", such a response should be taken as prima...

Understanding affirmative action.

Affirmative action is a controversial and often poorly understood policy. It is also a policy that has been widely studied by social scientists. In this review, we outline how affirmative action operates in employment and education settings and consider the major points of controversy. In addition, we detail the contributions of psychologists and other social scientists in helping to demonstrat...

Color-Blind Affirmative Action

This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the consequences of the widespread adoption of “race-neutral alternatives” to conventional racial affirmative action policies in college admissions. A simple model of applicant competition with endogenous effort is utilized to show that, in comparison to color-conscious affirmative action, these color-blind alternatives can significan...

Affirmative action, Cuban style.

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

The word discrimination is used loosely to encapsulate negative ideas surrounding the practice. In the case of affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan, discrimination is used to justify an unjust practice. Generally, when affirmative action is debated, it is considered from a singular perspective (i.e., it is wrong or it is right). Most ignore that admissions polici...