The relation between political ideology and attitudes toward affirmative action among African-Americans: The moderating effect of racial discrimination in the workplace

Survey data from two samples of African-American students supported the hyp othesis that the association between political ideology and attitudes towar d affirmative action (AA) is moderated by the experience of workplace discr imination. Specifically, ideology was associated with support for AA, but o nly among individuals who had not experienced discrimination. Among these i ndividuals, egalitarians, who view fairness in terms of group equality were more supportive of AA than were individualists, who view fairness from the perspective of the individual, Conversely, among individuals who had exper ienced discrimination, ideology was not related to attitude toward AA: supp ort was high and approximately equal regardless of ideology. Findings were interpreted in terms of Referent Cognitions Theory (Folger 1986).