Abstract:As políticas de ação afirmativa implementadas nas universidades públicas no Brasil abrangem três principais grupos: alunos de escolas públicas, alunos de baixa renda e alunos negros e indígenas. Opiniões sobre essa modalidade de política de ação afirmativa mais ampla, especialmente se mensuradas por perguntas diretas, podem ser enviesadas por um efeito de desejabilidade social. Este artigo procura entender se atitudes sobre diferentes tipos de políticas de ação afirmativa são propensas a um efeito de desejabil… Show more
“…Respondents frequently do so by aligning their attitudes with social norms in the hope of being positively viewed by others (Edwards, 1957). This is commonly known as a social‐desirability effect in survey responses (Berinsky, 1999), or also sensitivity bias (Blair et al, 2020), and there is evidence that support for affirmative action in Brazil when measured directly in surveys suffers from such effects (Burle & Turgeon, 2020). For this reason, we expect that: H4 : Direct measures of support for affirmative action overrepresent true support for said policies, independently of the type of quota.…”
Section: Understanding Public Opinion On Affirmative Actionmentioning
Few public policies have been as consequential or divisive as affirmative action. Proponents have argued for the need for equity and the redress of past and present discrimination, whereas opponents enlist claims over individual liberty and merit. Scholars have examined support to affirmative action, asking to what extent citizens' support is shaped by their political ideology, interest, prejudice, or some combination thereof. Much work to date has focused on the United States, where disentangling theoretical explanations has proved challenging. We turn our attention to an understudied but important case: Brazil. Brazil has implemented a broad form of affirmative action for admission to federal universities that include consideration of the applicant's education, income, and race. Adopting both a conventional question and a list experiment embedded in a face‐to‐face survey among a nationally representative sample of adult Brazilians, we find that public support for affirmative action suffers from social desirability bias, and in our subsequent regression analysis, that attitudes about affirmative action are structured especially by individuals' interests.
“…Respondents frequently do so by aligning their attitudes with social norms in the hope of being positively viewed by others (Edwards, 1957). This is commonly known as a social‐desirability effect in survey responses (Berinsky, 1999), or also sensitivity bias (Blair et al, 2020), and there is evidence that support for affirmative action in Brazil when measured directly in surveys suffers from such effects (Burle & Turgeon, 2020). For this reason, we expect that: H4 : Direct measures of support for affirmative action overrepresent true support for said policies, independently of the type of quota.…”
Section: Understanding Public Opinion On Affirmative Actionmentioning
Few public policies have been as consequential or divisive as affirmative action. Proponents have argued for the need for equity and the redress of past and present discrimination, whereas opponents enlist claims over individual liberty and merit. Scholars have examined support to affirmative action, asking to what extent citizens' support is shaped by their political ideology, interest, prejudice, or some combination thereof. Much work to date has focused on the United States, where disentangling theoretical explanations has proved challenging. We turn our attention to an understudied but important case: Brazil. Brazil has implemented a broad form of affirmative action for admission to federal universities that include consideration of the applicant's education, income, and race. Adopting both a conventional question and a list experiment embedded in a face‐to‐face survey among a nationally representative sample of adult Brazilians, we find that public support for affirmative action suffers from social desirability bias, and in our subsequent regression analysis, that attitudes about affirmative action are structured especially by individuals' interests.
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