Perceived job discrimination against racial minorities and women remains a common problem. However, it may be misleading to assume that they are more exposed to job discrimination or more reactive to the harmful effects of job discrimination simply because they are racial minorities or women. Instead, it may be important to understand the nuances of job discrimination created by other individual differences in combination with their race or gender. Drawing from conservation of resources theory, we propose that general mental ability (GMA) is one such individual difference and suggest that GMA may play two critical roles in the experience of job discrimination for racial minorities and women. First, GMA may play a role in reducing the exposure of racial minorities and women to job discrimination (differential exposure). Second, GMA may help racial minorities and women become less reactive to the negative impacts of job discrimination on their personal lives (differential reactivity). We tested our hypotheses using 756 employees from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) project. Our results did not support the differential exposure role of GMA but supported the differential reactivity role. Implications of our findings for workplace diversity are discussed.
