What relevance does the experiment have to legal challenges to affirmative action in college admissions?
The constitutionality of affirmative action rests essentially on one premise that racial diversity serves a compelling interest for higher education. A large body of social science research has been conducted over the past five or six years with the intention of determining whether that premise can be substantiated. In the most recent judgment on affirmative action in undergraduate admissions (Gratz v. Bollinger & Grutter v. Bollinger), the Supreme Court ruled that the social science evidence presented a strong rationale for the compelling interest premise. Critics of the research, however, continue to raise concerns over specific aspects of how the scientific research was conducted. Our experiment addresses those concerns directly.
