2048 Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2006, 36, 8, pp. 2048–2071. r 2006 Copyright the Authors Journal compilation r 2006 Blackwell Publishing, Inc. Racial Tolerance and Reactions to Diversity Information in Job Advertisements 1 DOUGLAS J. BROWN 2 University of Waterloo RICHARD T. COBER Booz Allen Hamilton LISA M. KEEPING Wilfrid Laurier University PAUL E. LEVY The University of Akron The present paper reports the results from two investigations that examined the degree to which racial tolerance influences Caucasians’ attraction to organizations. In Study 1, 280 Caucasian job seekers rated the extent to which various organ- izational features would influence their interest in an organization. Findings sug- gested that (a) racial tolerance was related to the importance placed on organizational diversity, but not other factors (e.g., pay), and (b) that racial tol- erance predicted the importance placed on organizational diversity above and be- yond other relevant individual differences. Study 2 extended Study 1 by examining whether the diversity values expressed in job advertisements affect Caucasians’ perceptions of organizational image and subsequent job pursuit intentions. The results of Study 2 indicated that racial tolerance was significantly related to or- ganizational perceptions and pursuit intentions when strong diversity values were communicated in a job advertisement. Recent work in the organizational behavior literature has called upon researchers to consider more fully the impact that the ‘‘attitudinal baggage’’ individuals bring to their jobs may have on organizations (Brief, 1998). Converging lines of evidence indicate that racial tolerance is one piece of baggage that, if ignored, may have particularly negative consequences for organizations. Projections indicate that the demographic composition of the North American workforce is shifting dramatically and that minority group members are the fastest growing segment of the labor force (Fullerton, 1 This research was funded in part by a grant from the Society for Human Resource Man- agement Research Foundation. A previous version of this manuscript was presented at the 17 th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, April 2002, Toronto, Canada. 2 Correspondence concerning this article can be addressed to Douglas J. Brown Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1. E-mail: djbrown@watarts.uwaterloo.ca