How believing in affirmative action quotas affects White women’s self-image

0022-1031/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Inc. A doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.08.017 * Corresponding author. Address: Department of H zational Behavior, Anderson School of Management, Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095 310 825 0218. E-mail address: [email protected] (M.M. Unzueta) Believing that affirmative action entails quotas may both help and hurt White women’s self-image – contingent on whether they perceive themselves as beneficiaries of affirmative action. Consistent with research on the affirmative action ‘‘stigma of incompetence” (Heilman, Block, & Lucas, 1992), White women who think of themselves as affirmative action beneficiaries may report a more negative selfimage the more they believe that affirmative action entails quota procedures. Conversely, White women who do not think of themselves as beneficiaries of affirmative action may report a more positive selfimage as a function of quota beliefs, consistent with research suggesting that non-beneficiaries can derive self-image benefits frommaintaining the belief that affirmative action entails quotas (Unzueta, Lowery, & Knowles, 2008). Two studies provide evidence for the benefits of quota beliefs on White women’s selfimage, but no support for the stigma of incompetence perspective. The lack of support for the stigma of incompetence perspective suggests that self-stigmatization may occur only under operationalizations of affirmative action that explicitly inform beneficiaries that they were selected on the basis of demographics and not merit. Absent such an operationalization, the affirmative action self-stigma may not emerge. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.