25. Racial Bias? Does the race of an interviewer matter?

This question was investigated and reported in an issue of Chance magazine.2 The interviewer asked, “Do you feel that affirmative action should be used as an occupation selection criteria?” with possible answers of yes or no.

a. What problems might you expect with responses to this question when asked by interviewers of different ethnic origins?

b. When people were interviewed by an African-
American, the response was about 70% in favor of affirmative action, approximately 35% when interviewed by an Asian, and approximately 25% when interviewed by a Caucasian. Do these results support your answer in part a?