Support for employment equity policies: A self-enhancement approach

•We model how self-image threats influence reactions to employment equity policies.•We test our model in four studies in the context of gender-based EE policies.•EE policies threaten the self-images of both men and women.•Women with high interviewing self-efficacy react positively to EE policies.•Men and women react positively to EE policies when they self-affirm.

The effectiveness of employment equity (EE) policies has been hindered by negative reactions to these policies. We draw on the self-enhancement literature to expand self-interest accounts of reactions to EE policies to explain inconsistent findings showing that both nonbeneficiaries and beneficiaries react negatively to EE policies. Across four studies, we found that self-image threat influences reactions to gender-based EE policies. Studies 1 and 2 established that EE policies threaten the self-images of both men (nonbeneficiaries) and women (beneficiaries). Study 3 found that those least likely to experience self-image threat when faced with a gender-based EE policy are the most likely to show positive reactions to EE policies, while Study 4 showed that both men and women react more favorably to EE policies when self-images threats are mitigated through a self-affirmation task. Implications for our understanding of reactions to EE policies are discussed.