THE OTHER SIDE OF AFFIRMATIVE-ACTION - REACTIONS OF NONBENEFICIARIES TO SEX-BASED PREFERENTIAL SELECTION

Researchers studied 162 male undergraduates in an experiment designed to investigate haw the experience of unfair treatment affects the reac tions of nonbeneficiaries of sex-based preferential selection in terms of responses to the work task, characterizations of the woman benefic iary, and prosocial orientation to the work setting. The basis of sele ction (merit or preference), the comparative ability of the participan t and the selectee (superior, inferior, equal, or unknown) and the pre sence or absence of one type of explanatory justification for the sele ction decision (an ideological account) were systematically varied. Re sults indicated that preferential selection can produce negative react ions on the part of nonbeneficiaries, However. reactions to preferenti al selection were not always uniform, and procedural and distributive aspects of unfairness concerns were found to have consequences for dif ferent types of nonbeneficiary reactions. In addition, the mitigating effects of the ideological account were found to be limited to situati ons in which the beneficiary and nonbeneficiary were believed to be eq ually qualified.