Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University.
J Appl Psychol. 2017 May;102(5):782-801. doi: 10.1037/apl0000207. Epub 2017 Feb 2.
Affirmative action (AA) policies are among the most effective means for enhancing diversity and equality in the workplace, yet are also often viewed with scorn by the wider public. Fairness-based explanations for this scorn suggest AA policies provide preferential treatment to minorities, violating procedural fairness principles of consistent treatment. In other words, to promote equality in the workplace, effective AA policies promote inequality when selecting employees, and the broader public perceives this to be procedurally unfair. Given this inconsistency underlies negative reactions to AA policies, we argue that better preparing individuals to deal with inconsistencies can mitigate negative reactions to AA policies. Integrating theories from the fairness and cognitive styles literature, we demonstrate across 4 studies how dialectical thinking-a cognitive style associated with accepting inconsistencies in one's environment-increases support for AA policies via procedural fairness perceptions. Specifically, we found support for our propositions across a variety of AA policy types (i.e., strong and weak preference policies) and when conceptualizing dialectical thinking either as an individual difference or as a state that can be primed-including being primed by the framing of the AA policy itself. We discuss theoretical contributions and insights for policy-making at government and organizational levels. (PsycINFO Database Record
平权行动（AA）政策是增强工作场所多样性和平等性的最有效手段之一，但也经常受到更广泛公众的嘲笑。基于公平的解释认为，AA 政策为少数群体提供了优待，违反了一致待遇的程序公平原则。换句话说，为了促进工作场所的平等，有效的 AA 政策在选择员工时会造成不平等，而更广泛的公众认为这在程序上是不公平的。鉴于这种不一致是公众对 AA 政策产生负面反应的基础，我们认为，更好地让个人做好应对不一致的准备，可以减轻他们对 AA 政策的负面反应。我们整合了公平和认知风格文献中的理论，通过 4 项研究证明，辩证思维——一种与接受环境中的不一致相关的认知风格——通过程序公平感知，增加了对 AA 政策的支持。具体来说，我们通过各种 AA 政策类型（即强偏好和弱偏好政策）以及将辩证思维概念化为个体差异或可以被激发的状态（包括通过 AA 政策本身的框架来激发），为我们的主张提供了支持。我们讨论了在政府和组织层面制定政策的理论贡献和见解。
