The other day I came across a provocative-sounding journal article:
"How believing in affirmative action quotas protects White men's self-esteem"
by Unzueta (UCLA), Lowery (Stanford), and Knowles (UCI)
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 105 (2008)
I've been skimming parts of the article, and I'm trying to find something that will explain why I should I care about white men's self esteem.
I'm sure self-esteem is an important personality trait, but how does it affect attitudes and actions towards affirmative action? What role does self-esteem play in attitudes towards equality, social justice, and civic participation. And is self-esteem between individuals and groups a zero-sum affair (.i.e., if one party wins, another party has to lose)?
The authors described 3 studies they performed to show that believing affirmative action is a quota-based policy boosts White men's sense of self-competence and protects their self-esteem. I'm afraid I didn't have the time to read about the studies.
Meanwhile, I jumped to the end of the article and found some interesting suggestions for further research:
"...Future research should examine if other non-beneficiary groups, such as Asian Americans, experience similar self-esteem benefits as a function of quota beliefs. In addition, exploring the effects of quota beliefs on White women's self-esteem may also be of interest. Do White women consider themselves to be affirmative action beneficiaries or do they assume that affirmative action only benefits racial minorities?"
These are big questions, so I would expect that they've been studied to some extent.
If they haven't, then does that mean few people care what Asian Americans or White women think about affirmative action?