Just doing business: Modern racism and obedience to authority as explanations for employment discrimination

In two experiments, we investigated the effects of prejudice (in the form o f modem, racism) and business justifications by authority figures (i.e., or ganizational superiors) to discriminate against minorities (Blacks in our r esearch) in hiring situations. As expected, business justifications by legi timate authority figures led to participants' obedience in the form of disc rimination relative to a no-justification condition and, in the second expe riment, also relative to a condition in which the business justification ca me from an illegitimate authority figure. Moreover, in both experiments, as expected, modern racism did not have a main effect on discrimination, but interacted with business justifications such that modern racism predicted d iscrimination when a legitimate authority figure provided a business-relate d justification for such discrimination but not in the absence of such a ju stification. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical impl ications for understanding prejudice and obedience to authority in organiza tions and in terms of their practical implications for addressing the probl em of discrimination in the workplace. (C) 2000 Academic Press.