Affirmative action is a controversial and often poorly understood policy. It is also a policy that has been widely studied by social scientists. In this review, we outline how affirmative action operates in employment and education settings and consider the major points of controversy. In addition, we detail the contributions of psychologists and other social scientists in helping to demonstrate why affirmative action is needed; how it can have unintended negative consequences; and how affirmative action programs can be most successful. We also review how psychologists have examined variations in people's attitudes toward affirmative action, in part as a means for testing different theories of social behavior.

中文翻译：

---

了解平权行动。

平权行动是一个有争议的政策，而且常常被人们误解。这也是社会科学家广泛研究的一项政策。在这篇评论中，我们概述了平权行动在就业和教育环境中的运作方式，并考虑了争议的重点。此外，我们详细介绍了心理学家和其他社会科学家在帮助说明为什么需要平权行动方面的贡献；它怎么会产生意想不到的负面后果；以及平权行动计划如何最成功。我们还回顾了心理学家如何检查人们对平权行动态度的变化，部分是作为检验社会行为不同理论的一种手段。