Examining the principles in principled conservatism: The role of responsibility stereotypes as cues for deservingness in racial policy decisions.

TLDR

Educated conservatives oppose affirmative action, with principled conservatives citing fairness judgments while others attribute the opposition to racism. The article proposes an alternative perspective that reconciles these contradictory views. Two studies found that conservatives oppose affirmative action more toward Blacks than women, and that this opposition is best explained by group‑based deservingness stereotypes rather than racism or perceived threat, indicating that educated conservatives are principled but their principles are group‑based.

Abstract

Why do educated conservatives oppose affirmative action? Those in the "principled conservatism" camp say opposition is based on principled judgments of fairness about the policies. Others, however, argue that opposition is based on racism. The present article offers an alternative perspective that may reconcile these contradictory points of view. In 2 studies, the authors show 2 major findings: (a) that conservatives oppose affirmative action more for Blacks than for other groups, in this case women, and (b) that the relationship between conservatism and affirmative action attitudes is mediated best by group-based stereotypes that offer deservingness information and not by other potential mediators like old-fashioned racism or the perceived threat that affirmative action poses to oneself. The authors conclude that educated conservatives are indeed principled in their opposition to affirmative action, but those principles are group based not policy based.