Doctoral Dissertation: A Social Psychological Analysis of Resistance to Equal Opportunity Laws

博士论文：抵制平等机会法的社会心理学分析

• 批准号: 0425023
• 负责人: Cecilia Ridgeway
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-07-15 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0425023&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Social; Psychological; Analysis

This dissertation will develop and test a social psychological theory of how laws aimed at reducing inequality are sometimes undermined by the effect they have on people's beliefs about the existing status hierarchy. Equal opportunity (EO) laws apply to behaviors that are customary and widespread, and thus send the message that "normal" people need to change. I identify three important sources of resistance that laws encounter when they work toward destabilizing "normal" patterns of social interaction. The first is the accepted status order among social groups in society and the latter two are perceived threats to existing privileges and norms of social interaction that the law provokes. While this dissertation will pose, at a theoretical level, a larger question about the common sources of resistance to EO laws, it will test just one logical application of that argument to the case of sexual harassment law. I will use experimental research methods to assess the effect of sexual harassment policies on men's and women's beliefs about gender status and difference. An experiment will be conducted in which males and females complete a computer-based task with a partner of the opposite sex. Three conditions will compare the gender beliefs of participants who are read the university's sexual harassment policy before beginning the task to 1) those who are told that men have higher average scores on the task than women and to 2) those who complete the task with no manipulation. Participants' explicit and implicit beliefs about gender difference will be measured and then compared between conditions to show whether sexual harassment policy interventions activate unequal gender beliefs in a way that differs from other task-oriented situations in which gender is made salient. The results of this study have broader impacts for both theory and policy. Findings will show the effect of a certain type of sexual harassment policy implementation. If the results suggest that policies disseminated as a bureaucratic obligation, or as a means of avoiding legal threat, activate beliefs that run counter to the policy's aims, this information should help organizations implement policies more effectively. More generally, specifying the nature of resistance to laws is important for understanding the conditions under which people mobilize the law, obey the law, and protect themselves from legal threat, as well as when a law can spur ideological change. The results should also provide suggestive evidence about how to examine resistance to other EO policies such as racial harassment, affirmative action, and sexual orientation protections.

本论文将发展和测试一个社会心理学理论，旨在减少不平等的法律有时会被他们对人们对现有地位等级的信念的影响所破坏。平等机会法适用于习惯和普遍的行为，因此发出了“正常”的人需要改变的信息。我确定了三个重要的阻力来源，法律遇到的工作时，他们对不稳定的“正常”的社会互动模式。第一个是社会中各社会群体之间公认的地位秩序，后两个是对法律所引起的现有特权和社会交往规范的威胁。虽然本论文将提出，在理论层面上，一个更大的问题的共同来源的阻力EO法律，它将测试只有一个逻辑应用的论点的情况下，性骚扰法。 我将使用实验研究的方法来评估性骚扰政策对男性和女性的性别地位和差异的信念的影响。将进行一项实验，其中男性和女性与异性伴侣一起完成一项基于计算机的任务。三个条件将比较参与者的性别信念，这些参与者在开始任务之前阅读了大学的性骚扰政策，1）那些被告知男性在任务中的平均得分高于女性的人，以及2）那些完成任务没有操纵的人。参与者对性别差异的显性和隐性信念将被测量，然后在不同条件下进行比较，以显示性骚扰政策干预是否以不同于其他任务导向的情况下，性别是突出的方式激活不平等的性别信念。这项研究的结果对理论和政策都有更广泛的影响。调查结果将显示某种类型的性骚扰政策实施的效果。如果研究结果表明，作为一种官僚义务或作为一种避免法律的威胁的手段而传播的政策，激活了与政策目标背道而驰的信念，那么这些信息应该有助于组织更有效地执行政策。更一般地说，明确抵制法律的性质，对于理解人们在何种条件下动员法律、遵守法律、保护自己免受法律的威胁，以及法律何时能够刺激意识形态的变化，都是非常重要的。研究结果还应提供有关如何审查对其他EO政策的阻力的提示性证据，如种族骚扰，平权行动和性取向保护。