John M. Carey is the John Wentworth Professor in the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Katherine Clayton is a political science Ph.D. student at Stanford University, California. Yusaku Horiuchi is Professor of Government and the Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

'Scholars seldom study ourselves - we think we know the answers - and it is hard to study complex and ideologically fraught issues - will people say what they really think? Yet Carey, Clayton, and Horiuchi have done both, in a research project as elegantly designed as it is substantively persuasive. We now know what the vague term 'diversity' means, who wants it and why - and we are even given reason to believe that Americans can rise above polarized controversy. This is a highly valuable study, for many reasons.' Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University

• 1. What we are studying, why, and how; 2. Roots of the current diversity debates; 3. Our conjoint experiments; 4. What students think: Results across all students; 5. How attitudes differ across groups; 6. How preferences differ by political beliefs; 7. What about when all else is not equal?; 8. How student attitudes differ from faculty attitudes; 9. Evidence from other cases; 10. Conclusion.

John M. Carey is the John Wentworth Professor in the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Katherine Clayton is a political science Ph.D. student at Stanford University, California. Yusaku Horiuchi is Professor of Government and the Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

'Scholars seldom study ourselves - we think we know the answers - and it is hard to study complex and ideologically fraught issues - will people say what they really think? Yet Carey, Clayton, and Horiuchi have done both, in a research project as elegantly designed as it is substantively persuasive. We now know what the vague term 'diversity' means, who wants it and why - and we are even given reason to believe that Americans can rise above polarized controversy. This is a highly valuable study, for many reasons.' Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University

• 1. What we are studying, why, and how; 2. Roots of the current diversity debates; 3. Our conjoint experiments; 4. What students think: Results across all students; 5. How attitudes differ across groups; 6. How preferences differ by political beliefs; 7. What about when all else is not equal?; 8. How student attitudes differ from faculty attitudes; 9. Evidence from other cases; 10. Conclusion.

John M. Carey is the John Wentworth Professor in the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Katherine Clayton is a political science Ph.D. student at Stanford University, California. Yusaku Horiuchi is Professor of Government and the Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

'Scholars seldom study ourselves - we think we know the answers - and it is hard to study complex and ideologically fraught issues - will people say what they really think? Yet Carey, Clayton, and Horiuchi have done both, in a research project as elegantly designed as it is substantively persuasive. We now know what the vague term 'diversity' means, who wants it and why - and we are even given reason to believe that Americans can rise above polarized controversy. This is a highly valuable study, for many reasons.' Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University

• 1. What we are studying, why, and how; 2. Roots of the current diversity debates; 3. Our conjoint experiments; 4. What students think: Results across all students; 5. How attitudes differ across groups; 6. How preferences differ by political beliefs; 7. What about when all else is not equal?; 8. How student attitudes differ from faculty attitudes; 9. Evidence from other cases; 10. Conclusion.