Attitudes toward redistributive social policies: the effects of social comparisons and policy experience

An extensive body of research has examined the factors that shape attitudes toward employment-based redistributive policies such as affirmative action and comparable worth. Empirical work has focused particularly on individualistic predictors of opposition toward these policies, including prejudice or justice beliefs (Bobocel, Son Hing, Davies, Stanley, and Zanna, 1998; Sears, Henry, and Kosterman, 2000). Although some research has considered whether policy support varies as a function of the type of affirmative action program – preferential treatment versus equal opportunity (Bobocel et al., 1998) – little research has assessed how features of employment settings themselves might affect attitudes toward redistributive policies and ideological beliefs. Aspects of the work setting are likely to shape people's beliefs about inequality and group-based policies by cueing different self-categorizations and comparison standards that people draw on when they evaluate their employment outcomes (Tajfel and Turner, 1986; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, and Wetherell, 1987). In this chapter, we argue that the presence or absence of gender-based redistributive policies in employment settings convey different identity and comparison information, which then affects people's responses to gender differences in employment outcomes and whether they support or oppose policies that alter these outcomes. We expect that women and men who have conscious experience with redistributive policies will respond differently to these policies and related ideological beliefs than will those who do not have this experience.