Políticas de ação afirmativa e o experimento de listas: o caso das cotas raciais na universidade brasileira

Abstract

Resumo: Neste artigo adotamos uma metodologia de questionamento indireto para medir as opiniões de estudantes da UnB acerca do uso da cor/raça como um critério de admissão à Universidade. Partimos da hipótese de que opiniões sobre políticas afirmativas não são obtidas com confiabilidade em surveys convencionais, pois o grupo não elegível ao benefício (no caso, os estudantes brancos) poderia ocultar uma resposta de oposição por receio de parecer preconceituoso. Esse efeito é conhecido na literatura como efeito da desejabilidade social. Portanto, adotamos uma metodologia que garante privacidade aos respondentes, denominada experimento de listas, para medir as opiniões sinceras dos estudantes acerca do sistema de cotas raciais. Porém os resultados mostraram que o viés nas opiniões ocorreu, de forma inesperada, no grupo de estudantes elegíveis às cotas (afrodescendentes e indígenas). Precisamente, eles apoiaram fortemente o sistema de cotas raciais (68,3%) quando tiveram privacidade nas respostas, mas na pergunta direta demonstraram apenas uma tímida aprovação (29,0%). Chamamos esse efeito de efeito de inibição.Paralelamente, os estudantes brancos não demonstraram nenhum efeito de desejabilidade social, contrariando alguns achados de pesquisas similares nos EUA.Palavras-chave: atitudes políticas; experimento de survey; efeito de survey; políticas de ação afirmativa Abstract: In this article, we adopt an indirect questioning methodology to measure attitudes toward the use of race as a criterion for admission in Brazilian higher education institutions. We hypothesize that attitudes toward such affirmative action policies cannot be measured by conventional survey questions because non-eligible students -mostly white students -may fear to appear prejudiced by showing opposition to them. This survey effect is known as the social desirability effect. Thus we adopt a list experiment to measure students' sincere attitudes toward the race-based quota admission system. We find that white students do not over-report their approval of racial quotas in university admissions. But, the results show that quota eligible students, Afro and indigenous Brazilians, tend to overwhelmingly under-report their approval of race quotas. Specifically, eligible students strongly approve of the racial quota system (68.3%) when provided privacy in their responses, but publicly voice only timid approval of it (29.0%). We label this effect as the inhibition effect. Moreover, we did not find a social desirability effect among white students, contrasting with some previous findings in the U.S.

Affirmative Action Attitudes of Whites: Evidence from a List Experiment Survey in Brazil

“…First, new research on socially sensitive issues should pay attention to the social desirability effect, since the results of this study and elsewhere (TURGEON et al, 2014;VIDIGAL, 2015) show that this clearly affects expressed public opinion not only of whites, but of individuals in general. Second, researchers should attempt to disentangle the effects of race and class in Brazil through new and innovative methods.…”

“…This study is unusual in that it maps the racial attitudes of college students in Brazil through a survey-experiment (see also TURGEON, CHAVES and WIVES, 2014;VIDIGAL, 2015), providing a more accurate picture of public opinion among those who oppose affirmative action policies in universities. This study demonstrates that research on socially sensitive issues should devote further attention to the social desirability effect, since the results of this study and others (TURGEON, CHAVES and WIVES, 2014;VIDIGAL, 2015) clearly show its effect on the opinions not only of whites, but of individuals in general. Throughout the discussion and conclusion, I discuss the specificities of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, the limitations of the study and the possibility for generalization.…”

Ciências Sociais Hoje: Sociologia

“…Outro artigo que também utiliza o experimento de lista -que consiste no questionamento indireto para medir opiniões -focaliza as experiências particulares de discentes da UnB, Distrito Federal, retomando o debate sobre a raça como critério de admissão à universidade (Turgeon;Chavez;Wives, 2014). Neste trabalho, os autores buscaram mensurar a opinião dos discentes acerca da reserva de vagas com base no critério racial.…”

Attitudes on Affirmative Action in University Students: Effects of Race, Political Beliefs and Prejudice

“…When social desirability bias is expected, scholars have frequently adopted indirect measures of attitudes like the list and endorsement experiments to circumvent this social desirability bias in attitude report (Kim & Kim, 2016;Sniderman & Grob, 1996;Vidigal, 2018). Turgeon, Chaves and Wives (2014), for example, used a list experiment to measure attitudes about racial quotas in university admissions in Brazil. Their results show that, contrary to expectations, white students do not over-report their support for racial quotas, but that non-white students tend to under-report their support.…”