Social discrimination in a personnel selection context: The effects of an authority's instruction to discriminate and followers' authoritarianism

Social discrimination in a personnel-selection context was studied using an in-basket exercise. West German participants had to select personnel from an applicant pool that included West German applicants (in-group members) a nd East German applicants (out-group members). As predicted, we round a mai n effect for an authority's instruction to discriminate against out-group m embers. This main effect was. as predicted, qualified by an Instruction x R ight-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) interaction effect. Only high scorers on R WA discriminated against out-group members when instructed to do so.