Live Poster Session: 5/1 Zoom, 1-2pm https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/93582065415
Aarushi Bahadur
Aarushi is a freshman at Wesleyan University. She is majoring in the College of Social Studies.
Abstract: The Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision resulted in the dismantling of affirmative action policies at Harvard and UNC. Although Asian plaintiffs supported “colorblind” framing, Asian American perspectives on affirmative action are more heterogeneous than this suggests (Park & Liu, 2014). Data were drawn from the 2024 American National Election Studies (ANES) survey; the sample included 197 Asian respondents, and favorability of view on affirmative action was recoded into a binary variable: 0 (favors) and 1 (does not favor), with neutral responses (4) coded as 1. The research sought to answer the question of which demographic factors (e.g., party identification, gender, income, education, and country of origin) are associated with unfavorable attitudes toward affirmative action among Asian and Asian American respondents, and which is the most significant predictor. Chi-square analysis showed that favorability varied significantly by PartyID, χ²(6) = 26.06, p < .001, with respondents who leaned more Republican (higher PartyID) significantly more likely to express disfavor (74.1% at PartyID = 7) than those who leaned Democrat (32.3% at ID = 1). Findings suggested that Party ID is the strongest predictor of unfavorable attitudes toward affirmative action within the Asian community and that opinion on affirmative action is drawn along primarily partisan lines.