RESPONDING TO TOKENISM - INDIVIDUAL ACTION IN THE FACE OF COLLECTIVE INJUSTICE

Tokenism is defined as an intergroup context in which very few, member s of a disadvantaged group ale accepted into positions usually, reserv ed for members of the advantaged group, while access is systematically denied for the vast majority, of disqualified disadvantaged group mem bers. In a laboratory experiment, Wright, Taylor and Moghaddam (1990) found that when disadvantaged group members are denied upward mobility because of a policy of tokenism? the? did not respond with socially, disruptive forms of collective action. Instead, they chose a more beni gn individual non-normative response. The robustness of this unexpecte d response to tokenism is explored in two experiments. In Experiment 1 , the use of a relevant real-world ingroup as the target of tokenism r esulted in a pattern of responses consistent with Wright et al.'s (199 0) findings. In Experiment 2, interaction with other disadvantaged gro up members prior to the imposition of the policy of tokenism also did not alter participants' behavioural responses. These findings support the robustness of this pattern of response to tokenism, and strengthen concerns that tokenism may be an effective tool for reducing the like lihood of collective action directed against the discriminatory practi ces of the advantaged gr group. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.