Posted on Nov 15, 2002

David Evans,
visiting assistant professor of psychology, has written a paper, “A comparison
of the other-directed stigmatization produced by legal and illegal forms of
affirmative action” is to be published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Recent studies have begun to show
that the stigma of incompetence sometimes directed toward the beneficiaries of
affirmative action may be significantly reduced as the preferences granted to
women and minorities become more moderate. The current study examined whether
the stigmatization of African-Americans would differ under hiring policies that
represented legal and illegal levels of racial preference, according to federal
regulations. Evans also is a co-author on the forthcoming paper, “In the
privacy of their own homes: Using the internet to assess racial bias” in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Recent
studies suggest that research participants show less distortion of their taboo
attitudes and behaviors when they take part in internet-based procedures from
outside the laboratory. The study explored whether such procedures would reduce
distortion in the assessment of racial bias.