Racism, conservatism, Affirmative Action, and intellectual sophistication: A matter of principled conservatism or group dominance?

Abstract

Using data from 3 different samples, th authors found that: (a) the relationships between political conservatism and racism generally increased as a function of ed cati al sophistication; however, the relationship between political conservatism and anti-Black affect did not increase with educational sophistication. (b) The correlation between political conservatism and racism could be entirely ac-counted for by their mutual relationship with social dominance orientation. (c) Generally, the n t effect of political conservatism, racism, and social dominance orientation on opposition to affir-mative action increased with increasing education. These findings contradict much of the casefor the principled conservatism hypothesis, which maintains hat political values that are largely devoid of racism, especially mong highly educated people, are the major source f Whites ' opposition t affirmative action. Conservatives generally voice opposition to civil rights legis-lation on the grounds that, to avoid costly litigation associated with affirmative action, employers would inevitably resort to hiring quotas for women and minorities. Conservatives gener-ally reject suggestions that their opposition to civil rights legis-