Thread by @lymanstoneky

Has anyone explored whether public beliefs about university affirmative action policies influence the premium graduates command?

i.e. do employers who believe that universities practice lots of affirmative action respond less to the credential?

https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1419839992390733828

Seems like a confound in audit studies is that people might assume (wrongly or rightly) that a white kid who got into a school did NOT benefit from affirmative action whereas a black kid did, and so might see the black kid's degree as a noisier signal.

Now, that belief might itself be racist, but it's worth teasing out the different kinds of racism involved here so that we can understand actually what beliefs and attitudes are in play.

The belief, "I dislike blacks so much I won't hire them even if qualified" is different from the belief, "Nothing against black people, but I suspect the credential this person got is inflated, because School X practices very aggressive affirmative action."

A key difference here is the second argument can be rebutted with stuff like, "Yes, true, however, white students are disproportionately likely to be athletes and legacies, who may also not be highly academically qualified. So no reason to disfavor black applicants!"

But that argument would be irrelevant to the first belief, which is just first-order animus.