The equal opportunity illusion: The effects of prejudice and power on information seeking, employee evaluation, task assignment, and estimates of employee success (PDF)

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Psychology - Social Psychology, grade: Good, University of Marburg (Psychology Institute), language: English, abstract: This study tested the effects of individual variables (prejudice level) and situational factors
(power instructions) on information seeking strategies, employee evaluation, estimation of
likely success, and task assignment in an employer - employee, ethnicity relevant
experimental design, with subjects always assigned the role of employer and an ostensibly
other person (a same gender black individual depicted in a photograph) assigned the role of
employee. Subjects (N=60) were categorized into groups that varied on power (exclusive or
inclusive leadership instruction) and prejudice (quartile split of MRS scores). Participants
were asked to select a subset of questions and tasks from various lists for the ostensibly other
subject to answer. Participants at a later point in the experiment rated selected questions and
tasks. At the end of the experiment the participants were asked to give a final employee
evaluation and estimation of likely success for a future project. Next to the attempt of replicating generally accepted and expected interrelations of power and prejudice with certain attention (information - seeking) strategies and the use of
stereotypes and their effect on evaluation and estimation, one of the main focuses of this
study is on the effects of the above variables on behavior (final task assignment).
Consistent with predictions participants with a low prejudice level assigned more
valued tasks, focused more on strength of the employee and estimated greater employee
success than did high prejudice participants. Also participants with inclusive leadership
instructions assigned relatively more skill tests with supporting help and estimated greater
employee success than participants with exclusive leadership instructions. Interaction -
effects across the skills test- information seeking-, employee evaluation-, final task
assignment-, and estimated success- variables showed that high prejudiced participants in the
exclusive leadership style condition respond in stereotype consistent ways significantly more
often than participants in the inclusive leadership condition and low prejudice participants. The Equal Opportunity- Illusion: The effects of prejudice and power on information seeking, employee evaluation, task assignment, and estimates of employee success
The front page of the New York Times on Friday, March 30th 2001 read "California
Census Confirms Whites Are In Minority - State now most diverse". [...]