Promotion decisions in an affirmative action environment: Can social accounts change fairness perceptions?

An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of observer gender, applicants' qualifications, and managerial accounts on justice perceptions in an affirmative action environment. As expected, MANOVA results indicated that, prior to providing an account, the promotion of a female yielded the highest fairness ratings when the female was more qualified than the male applicant and when the observer was female. In a second wave of data, MANCOVA results indicated that an ideological-gender explanation resulted in the lowest subsequent fairness ratings. Additionally, accounts interacted with applicants' qualifications. When the promoted female was the most qualified candidate, the ideological-gender account resulted in the lowest fairness ratings.