title: Appeasement: Whites' strategic support for affirmative action.
abstract: This article explores the possibility that dominant-group members will attempt to appease subordinate groups to protect the hierarchy. In four studies, we find that (a) prohierarchy Whites perceive more intergroup threat when they believe ethnic minorities hold Whites in low regard, (b) prohierarchy Whites respond to ethnic minorities' low regard for Whites by increasing their support for redistributive policies (e.g., affirmative action), (c) the increase in support only occurs when prohierarchy Whites perceive the hierarchy to be unstable, and (d) prohierarchy Whites perceive the hierarchy to be more stable if they believe Whites support redistributive policies. These results suggest that prohierarchy dominant-group members' support for redistributive policies can stem from a concern about maintaining the hierarchical status quo, and provides evidence that support for redistributive policies can be a hierarchy-enhancing strategy.
authors: Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. rchow@andrew.cmu.edu
authors: Rosalind M
authors: RM
authors: Chow
authors: Brian S
authors: BS
authors: Lowery
authors: Caitlin M
authors: CM
authors: Hogan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D026706:Paternalism; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012930:Social Dominance; D012935:Social Justice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult