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Channeling others' biases to meet role demands ☆
Abstract
Five studies illuminate how the demands of the roles that people occupy can sometimes contribute to the maintenance of group inequality by promoting the accommodation of others' biases, even when those biases disadvantage an in-group or clash with personal views. When role demands to maximize candidate fit in hiring selections were strong, preference for job candidates of a given group tended to be lower when there were cues to third-party prejudice against that group (vs. no cues), irrespective of in-group favoritism effects (Studies 1-5) or participant attitudes (Studies 4 and 5). We found supporting evidence for the underlying processes in the context of hiring selections involving fictional groups (Study 1) as well as female job candidates (Studies 2-5). A concern with meeting the demands of the gatekeeper role was at the root of prejudice accommodation: When role-demands to prioritize candidate fit were strong, role-relevant considerations (interpersonal and task-fo-cused) mediated the accommodation effect (Studies 1 and 4). The more gatekeepers in charge of hiring sought to meet role demands by considering the preferences of relevant third parties, the more they accommodated third-party prejudice (Study 2). Moreover, role-based concerns mediated the accommodation of prejudice-but not other potential considerations that were unrelated to role demands (Study 3). Finally, the accommodation effect was eliminated when the role definition did not prioritize candidate fit (Study 4) and when we experimentally reduced the strength of role-related concerns (Study 5). These findings illustrate the relevance of the role concept for understanding the social transmission of bias.
... Individuals operate in accordance with what they see as the demands of their formal role [10,11], and when making recruitment decisions on behalf of others, this role construal can lead professionals to align their hiring decisions with the perceived biases (prejudice, stereotyping, and/or discriminatory actions) of relevant third parties. This bias accommodation process has been labelled the "third-party prejudice effect" and has only very recently been established in psychological experiments [12,13]. Crucially, in the current work, we propose that the influence of third-party bias depends in part on the way that individuals construe the hiring manager role-a construal that is likely shaped by professionals' training, personal histories and attitudes, and belief systems. ...
... Given substantial evidence that hiring discrimination contributes to persistent gender segregation in the labor market [14], we focus our research on hiring discrimination as a result of the inferred gender biases of a relevant third party. Throughout this investigation, we refer to the consequence of accommodating third-party bias on employment decisions as "hiring discrimination," defined as excluding candidates based on group membership regardless of their qualifications, in this case, due to the perceived gender bias of a third party [12,13]. ...
... We approach bias accommodation within the theoretical framework of role theory [15,16], and we test how professional hiring managers' role construal (i.e., their understanding of the formal demands of being in a hiring role) may influence their views about bias accommodation in hiring contexts. Whereas past work with nonprofessional samples manipulated the contextual strength of role-related concerns to examine the influence of role demands on bias accommodation [12,13], the current investigation is the first to examine how pre-existing individual differences in the endorsement of specific role duties-the beliefs about their role that hiring professionals bring to the table-may promote hiring discrimination as a result of bias accommodation. In doing this, we contribute to a more thorough understanding of the third-party bias effect by testing individual differences rather than situational factors that contribute to it. ...
We theorize that individuals’ pre-existing beliefs about the hiring manager role (role construal) are associated with their tendency to condone bias accommodation in hiring contexts, in which a person aligns hiring decisions with the perceived biases of others. In two studies, we focus on human resources (HR) professionals’ endorsement of the role demand to prioritize candidate fit with others (e.g., supervisor) when making hiring decisions. Study 1 examined bias accommodation from a vicarious perspective, revealing that role demand endorsement is positively associated with viewing it as acceptable and common for another hiring manager to accommodate third-party bias against women. Study 2 examined bias accommodation experimentally from an actor’s perspective, showing lower preference for and selection of a female (vs. male) job candidate in the presence of cues to third-party bias against women, but only when role demand endorsement is relatively high. HR professionals in both studies indicated that third-party bias influences in hiring are relatively common. Responses in Study 2 provide preliminary evidence that the phenomenon of third-party bias accommodation might be relevant in the context of employment discrimination based on group characteristics other than gender (e.g., race/ethnicity, age). We discuss the practical implications of our findings for hiring professionals and for organizations seeking to increase diversity in their workforce.
Research on social discrimination has traditionally focused on the direct influence of individuals' prejudice on their behavior toward members of minoritized groups. In this review, we highlight recent theory and research findings on the indirect influence of prejudice, which can produce discriminatory outcomes, even among low‐prejudiced people, to accommodate the prejudices of others. Key to this process of prejudice accommodation is instrumental goals, which often derive from formal organizational roles. To illustrate the dynamics of prejudice accommodation, we focus on the context of hiring decisions with the potential to produce gender employment discrimination. When organizations focus on person‐environment or cultural fit, personnel decisions become interdependent with the attitudes of relevant constituents, promoting the accommodation of those attitudes to fulfill instrumental goals. We discuss evidence for the centrality of instrumental goals associated with cultural fit among hiring professionals, and recent research connecting those instrumental goals to prejudice accommodation in hiring decisions that produce gender discrimination. We also review evidence suggesting that instrumental goals (rather than personal attitudes) underlie prejudice accommodation, creating a conundrum for decision‐makers low in prejudice and/or highly motivated to respond in unprejudiced ways. In closing, we provide practical recommendations to counter the indirect influence of prejudice in hiring, including reframing decision‐makers’ goals to foster independence and educating people about the consequences of prejudice accommodation.
We extend work on how, when, and why people accommodate another's bias by drawing from attribution theories and research on evaluative transfer to investigate how observers reasoned about an actor who accommodated the sexist views of another person. As predicted, participants made stronger internal, sexist attributions for actors who accommodated (vs. rejected) another person's sexism (Study 1). Moreover, participants made stronger sexist attributions when a male (vs. female) actor accommodated a man's prejudice against women, and they responded more negatively as a result. The same actor-gender effect emerged in Study 2, except when the decision to accommodate someone else's sexism contradicted the actor's previous hiring intentions. Across studies, stronger attributions to the sexism of the actor were associated with participants’ negative reactions to the decision and proposed penalties for the actor, and partly explained why participants reacted more negatively when a male (vs. female) actor accommodated gender prejudice. To reduce gender employment discrimination, our findings suggest that organizational leaders may develop interventions that rely on social norms, raising awareness among hiring managers that, although accommodating sexism might seem to align with their job duties, others view it negatively and actively penalize individuals who engage in it. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843231221501
While the 2020 Democratic field was touted as one of the most diverse in presidential nomination history, a white, male, heterosexual candidate ultimately won the nomination. This is, on its face, surprising, as we might expect less sexism and more enthusiasm for diverse candidates among Democratic voters. To help explain this outcome, we refocus attention on the “third-person effect” and the anticipated reactions of others to a female candidate, rather than voters own individual beliefs in two ways. First, we demonstrate that attitudes about female presidential candidates still follow third-person effect predictions; individuals attribute socially desirable attitudes to themselves and less so more distant others (i.e. “Americans”). Second, we analyze how voters take into account perceived potential gender bias by others, which in turn influences female candidates’ perceived electability (likely support from other voters). Gendered electability then has measurable impacts on preference for female candidates, as they strategically choose the more electable candidate. Overall, these results demonstrate looking at the anticipated gender bias of others, rather than just an individual’s attitudes, can be helpful in explaining the continued perception of female presidential candidates as less electable and, ultimately, why women have not yet broken the highest glass ceiling.
This study examined whether employees develop perceptions about 3 different types of fit: person-organization fit, needs-supplies fit, and demands-abilities fit. Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 2 different samples strongly suggested that employees differentiate between these 3 types of fit. Furthermore, results from a longitudinal design of 187 managers supported both the convergent and discriminant validity of the different types of fit perceptions. Specifically, person-organization fit perceptions were related to organization-focused outcomes (e.g., organizational identification, citizenship behaviors, turnover decisions), whereas needs-supplies fit perceptions were related to job- and career-focused outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, career satisfaction, occupational commitment). Although demands-abilities fit perceptions emerged as a distinct construct, they were not related to hypothesized outcomes (e.g., job performance, raises).
The current research challenges the assumption that the presence of women in leadership positions will automatically "break the glass ceiling" for other women. We contend that it is not just a female leader's presence, but also her performance, that influences evaluations of subsequent female candidates for leadership positions. We argue that the continued scarcity and perceived mismatch of women with high-level leadership increases gender salience, promoting perceptions of within-group similarity and fostering an evaluative generalization from the performance of a female leader to the evaluations of another, individual woman. In 5 studies, we demonstrate that the effect of exposure to a female leader on another woman's evaluations and leadership opportunities depends on whether she is successful or unsuccessful (Study 1) and whether she confirms or disconfirms stereotype-based expectations about women's leadership abilities (Study 2). Supporting the role of gender salience and shared group membership in the process, we show that this effect occurs only between women in male gender-typed leadership roles: Evaluative generalization does not occur between women in contexts that are not strongly male in gender type (Study 3) and is not observed between men in male-typed leadership (Study 4). We also explore whether there is evaluative generalization between male leaders in a female-typed context (Study 5). Our results suggest that overcoming gender imbalances in leadership may not be as simple as targeted placement, and that having women in high places should not induce complacency about the elimination of gender bias. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
We investigated how gatekeepers sometimes arrive at discriminatory hiring selections to accommodate prejudiced third parties due to role demands (i.e., the “third-party prejudice effect”). Studies 1 and 2 show that individuals in charge of personnel decisions were significantly less likely to select a woman when a relevant third party (the chief executive officer of the company in Study 1; the “proposer” in an ultimatum game in Study 2) was prejudiced against women. Gatekeepers accommodate third-party prejudice in this way in order to avoid conflict in relations and task-related problems that would likely occur if the gatekeeper introduced a member of the target of prejudice into an organization. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that both interpersonal and task-focused concerns significantly mediated third-party prejudice accommodation. Furthermore, experimentally reducing task-focused concerns significantly reduced the accommodation of third-party prejudice against women (Study 4). We also found that gatekeepers accommodate third-party prejudice regardless of their own beliefs and attitudes (Studies 5 and 6), or their own desire to get along or affiliate with the third party (Study 7), and despite leading to feelings of guilt (Studies 4 and 5). Both men and women accommodated third-party prejudice against women. A role-based framework can be useful to understand the persistence of gender inequality in various fields and organizations, even as individuals endorse increasingly gender-egalitarian views.
A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.
The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy (MWD) denotes polarized perceptions of women in general as either “good,” chaste, and pure Madonnas or as “bad,” promiscuous, and seductive whores. Whereas prior theories focused on unresolved sexual complexes or evolved psychological tendencies, feminist theory suggests the MWD stems from a desire to reinforce patriarchy. Surveying 108 heterosexual Israeli men revealed a positive association between MWD endorsement and patriarchy-enhancing ideology as assessed by Social Dominance Orientation (preference for hierarchical social structures), Gender-Specific System Justification (desire to maintain the existing gender system), and sexist attitudes (Benevolent and Hostile Sexism, Sexual Objectification of Women, and Sexual Double Standards). In addition, MWD endorsement negatively predicted men’s romantic relationship satisfaction. These findings support the feminist notion that patriarchal arrangements have negative implications for the well-being of men as well as women. Specifically, the MWD not only links to attitudes that restrict women’s autonomy, but also impairs men’s most intimate relationships with women. Increased awareness of motives underlying the MWD and its psychological costs can help practice professionals (e.g., couple therapists), as well as the general public, to foster more satisfying heterosexual relationships.
The generic, indeed the defining, task of social psychology is to investigate the interrelationships among society, the social person, and social behavior. Every theoretical perspective or framework in social psychology approaches this immense task by narrowing it, by selecting particular dimensions of society, persons, and behavior as especially worthy of attention. While the ultimate goal for social psychology may be a single, unified theoretical framework sufficiently comprehensive to incorporate “all” the “important” aspects, etc., of the defining conceptual variables of social psychology,1 that goal is not in sight. In the meantime, and before the millenium, all social psychological perspectives or frameworks are partial, selective in their approaches to the world they hope to explicate. That assertion is true of symbolic interactionism, the theoretical framework out of which the theory examined in this chapter develops, although perhaps less so than for most contemporary frameworks in social psychology.
Recent developments in social cognition could enhance sociological social psychologists' understanding of the mind as both a social product and a social force; yet this work in social cognition has received little attention. Conversely, social cognition has not fulfilled its promise to show what is truly social about cognition. We argue that more attention to social cognition on the part of sociologist would be beneficial to both fields, as would more attention to social structure on the part of those working in social cognition. After brief overview of social cognition we examine the self and self-concept and role theory as two substantive areas that provide immediate opportunities for connecting sociological social psychology and social cognition. In both areas we consider both the American version of social cognition and the European approach, which is based on social representations. We conclude that sociological social psychology can make a unique contribution to understanding how social structure and social cognition are linked.
Purpose:
Despite sincere commitment to egalitarian, meritocratic principles, subtle gender bias persists, constraining women's opportunities for academic advancement. The authors implemented a pair-matched, single-blind, cluster randomized, controlled study of a gender-bias-habit-changing intervention at a large public university.
Method:
Participants were faculty in 92 departments or divisions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Between September 2010 and March 2012, experimental departments were offered a gender-bias-habit-changing intervention as a 2.5-hour workshop. Surveys measured gender bias awareness; motivation, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations to reduce bias; and gender equity action. A timed word categorization task measured implicit gender/leadership bias. Faculty completed a work-life survey before and after all experimental departments received the intervention. Control departments were offered workshops after data were collected.
Results:
Linear mixed-effects models showed significantly greater changes post intervention for faculty in experimental versus control departments on several outcome measures, including self-efficacy to engage in gender-equity-promoting behaviors (P = .013). When ≥ 25% of a department's faculty attended the workshop (26 of 46 departments), significant increases in self-reported action to promote gender equity occurred at three months (P = .007). Post intervention, faculty in experimental departments expressed greater perceptions of fit (P = .024), valuing of their research (P = .019), and comfort in raising personal and professional conflicts (P = .025).
Conclusions:
An intervention that facilitates intentional behavioral change can help faculty break the gender bias habit and change department climate in ways that should support the career advancement of women in academic medicine, science, and engineering.
Background: a major problem in evaluating and reviewing the published findings of studies on the association between a quantitative explanatory variable and a quantitative dependent variable is that the results are analysed and reported in many different ways. To achieve an effective review of different studies, a consistent presentation of the results is necessary. This paper aims to exemplify the main topics related to summarising and pooling research findings from multivariable models with a quantitative response variable. Methods: we outline the complexities involved in synthesising associations. We describe a method by which it is possible to transform the findings into a common effect size index which is based on standardised regression coefficients. To describe the approach we searched original research articles published before January 2012 for findings of the relationship between polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and birth weight of new-borns. Studies with maternal PCB measurements and birth weight as a continuous variable were included. Results: the evaluation of 24 included articles reveled that there was variation in variable measurement methods, transformations, descriptive statistics and inference methods. Research syntheses were performed summarizing regression coefficients to estimate the effect of PCBs on birth weight. A birth weight decline related to increase in PCB level was found. Conclusions: the proposed method can be useful in quantitatively reviewing published studies when different exposure measurement methods are used or differential control of potential confounding factors is not an issue.
In applying social role theory to account for the content of a wide range of stereotypes, this research tests the proposition that observations of groups' roles determine stereotype content (Eagly & Wood, 2012). In a novel test of how stereotypes can develop from observations, preliminary research collected participants' beliefs about the occupational roles (e.g., lawyer, teacher, fast food worker, chief executive officer, store clerk, manager) in which members of social groups (e.g., Black women, Hispanics, White men, the rich, senior citizens, high school dropouts) are overrepresented relative to their numbers in the general population. These beliefs about groups' typical occupational roles proved to be generally accurate when evaluated in relation to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then, correlational studies predicted participants' stereotypes of social groups from the attributes ascribed to group members' typical occupational roles (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c), the behaviors associated with those roles (Study 2), and the occupational interest profile of the roles (Study 3). As predicted by social role theory, beliefs about the attributes of groups' typical roles were strongly related to group stereotypes on both communion and agency/competence. In addition, an experimental study (Study 4) demonstrated that when social groups were described with changes to their typical social roles in the future, their projected stereotypes were more influenced by these future roles than by their current group stereotypes, thus supporting social role theory's predictions about stereotype change. Discussion considers the implications of these findings for stereotype change and the relation of social role theory to other theories of stereotype content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Dramatic forms of discrimination, such as lynching, property destruction, and hate crimes, are widely understood to be consequences of prejudicial hostility. This article focuses on what has heretofore been only an infrequent countertheme in scientific work on discrimination—that favoritism toward ingroups can be responsible for much discrimination. We extend this counterthesis to the strong conclusion that ingroup favoritism is plausibly more significant as a basis for discrimination in contemporary American society than is outgroup-directed hostility. This conclusion has implications for theory, research methods, and practical remedies.
Fair treatment of other scientists is an essential aspect of scientific integrity, warranting diversity interventions.
Attitudes toward female authority and their relationship to gender beliefs were examined using implicit and explicit measures of each. Implicit attitudes covaried with implicit gender authority beliefs (i.e., linking men to high-authority and women to low-authority roles). Explicit attitudes covaried with explicit gender authority beliefs, feminist identification, and hostile sexism. Thus, gender authority beliefs may influence both conscious and unconscious prejudice against female authorities. Although women showed less explicit prejudice than did men, their implicit attitudes were similarly negative. Finally, the relationship found between two different response latency methods (a priming task for attitudes, a categorization task for beliefs) supports the assumption that implicit measures assess similar constructs (i.e., automatic associations in long-term memory).
The authors integrate two complementary streams of research on “fit” that document positive impacts of similarity and negative effects of dissimilarity. Fit with an organization's culture typically focuses on similarity in values whereas relational demography examines similarity in demographic attributes. Although both streams emphasize fit and draw on similar underlying theories, little research investigates both simultaneously. In a field study with intact teams, both cultural and demographic fit had independent effects on subsequent performance; however, “deeper” value fit effects were stronger than “surface” demographic fit. Analyses by demographic group suggest that person-group fit has the greatest impact for individuals whose demographic background puts them at risk for poorer outcomes, particularly for socioeconomic status.
Employers have experimented with three broad approaches to promoting diversity. Some programs are designed to establish organizational responsibility for diversity, others to moderate managerial bias through training and feedback, and still others to reduce the social isolation of women and minority workers. These approaches find support in academic theories of how organizations achieve goals, how stereotyping shapes hiring and promotion, and how networks influence careers. This is the first systematic analysis of their efficacy. The analyses rely on federal data describing the workforces of 708 private sector establishments from 1971 to 2002, coupled with survey data on their employment practices. Efforts to moderate managerial bias through diversity training and diversity evaluations are least effective at increasing the share of white women, black women, and black men in management. Efforts to attack social isolation through mentoring and networking show modest effects. Efforts to establish responsibility for diversity lead to the broadest increases in managerial diversity. Moreover, organizations that establish responsibility see better effects from diversity training and evaluations, networking, and mentoring. Employers subject to federal affirmative action edicts, who typically assign responsibility for compliance to a manager, also see stronger effects from some programs. This work lays the foundation for an institutional theory of the remediation of workplace inequality.
We developed a multi-faceted prejudice habit-breaking intervention to produce long-term reductions in implicit race bias. The intervention is based on the premise that implicit bias is like a habit that can be reduced through a combination of awareness of implicit bias, concern about the effects of that bias, and the application of strategies to reduce bias. In a 12-week longitudinal study, people who received the intervention showed dramatic reductions in implicit race bias. People who were concerned about discrimination or who reported using the strategies showed the greatest reductions. The intervention also led to increases in concern about discrimination and personal awareness of bias over the duration of the study. People in the control group showed none of the above effects. Our results raise the hope of reducing persistent and unintentional forms of discrimination that arise from implicit bias.
This study investigated 3 broad classes of individual-differences variables (job-search motives, competencies, and constraints) as predictors of job-search intensity among 292 unemployed job seekers. Also assessed was the relationship between job-search intensity and reemployment success in a longitudinal context. Results show significant relationships between the predictors employment commitment, financial hardship, job-search self-efficacy, and motivation control and the outcome job-search intensity. Support was not found for a relationship between perceived job-search constraints and job-search intensity. Motivation control was highlighted as the only lagged predictor of job-search intensity over time for those who were continuously unemployed. Job-search intensity predicted Time 2 reemployment status for the sample as a whole, but not reemployment quality for those who found jobs over the study's duration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Prejudice and discrimination against women has become increasingly subtle and covert (N. V. Benokraitis & J. R. Feagin, 1986). Unlike research on racism, little research about prejudice and discrimination against women has explicitly examined beliefs underlying this more modern form of sexism. Support was found for a distinction between old-fashioned and modern beliefs about women similar to results that have been presented for racism (J. B. McConahay, 1986; D. O. Sears, 1988). The former is characterized by endorsement of traditional gender roles, differential treatment of women and men, and stereotypes about lesser female competence. Like modern racism, modern sexism is characterized by the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward women's demands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education and work). Research that compares factor structures of old-fashioned and modern sexism and racism and that validates our modern sexism scale is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors present a theory of sexism formulated as ambivalence toward women and validate a corresponding measure, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). The ASI taps 2 positively correlated components of sexism that nevertheless represent opposite evaluative orientations toward women: sexist antipathy or
Hostile Sexism (HS) and a subjectively positive (for sexist men) orientation toward women,
Benevolent Sexism (BS). HS and BS are hypothesized to encompass 3 sources of male ambivalence: Paternalism, Gender Differentiation, and Heterosexuality. Six ASI studies on 2,250 respondents established convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Overall ASI scores predict ambivalent attitudes toward women, the HS scale correlates with negative attitudes toward and stereotypes about women, and the BS scale (for nonstudent men only) correlates with positive attitudes and stereotypes about women. A copy of the ASI is provided, with scoring instructions, as a tool for further explorations of sexist ambivalence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Campus racial harassment provided the context for an experiment, replicated over 3 different campus samples, regarding the effects of social influence on Whites' reactions to racism. Hearing some-one condemn racism led Ss to express significantly stronger antiracist opinions than occurred following exposure to a no-influence control condition. Furthermore, hearing someone condone racism led Ss to adopt significantly less strong antiracist positions than when no other opinions were introduced. The robust social influence effects were obtained regardless of whether the source was White or Black or whether Ss responded publicly or privately. A social context approach to interracial settings is discussed.
According to stereotypic beliefs about the sexes, women are more communal (selfless and concerned with others) and less agentic (self-assertive and motivated to master) than men. These beliefs were hypothesized to stem from perceivers' observations of women and men in differing social roles: (a) Women are more likely than men to hold positions of lower status and authority, and (b) women are more likely than men to be homemakers and are less likely to be employed in the paid work force. In 5 experiments, 3,839 women and 850 men, most of whom were university students, each read a description of 1 man or woman and then rated that stimulus person on certain attributes. Exps I and II failed to support the hypothesis that observed sex differences in status underlie belief in female communal qualities and male agentic qualities. Exp III supported the hypothesis that observed sex differences in distribution into homemaker and employee occupational roles account for these beliefs. In this experiment, Ss perceived the average woman and man stereotypically. Female and male homemakers were perceived as high in communion and low in agency. Female and male employees were perceived as low in communion and high in agency, although female employees were perceived as even more agentic than their male counterparts. Exps IV and V examined perceptions that might account for the belief that employed women are especially agentic; freedom of choice about being employed accounted for it reasonably well. (58 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Largely drawing on the findings and reasoning of Milgram (1974), a laboratory experiment was conducted to assess the impact of authoritative directives and actor observability on the use of race as a selection criterion in hiring. A significant main effect for instructions was found, suggesting that, when told by a superior to do so, members of organizations may use race as a criterion in making hiring decisions. The precise form of this compliance effect varied, however, as a function of the type of dependent variable under consideration [attitudinal (i.e., ratings of Black job candidates) vs. behavioral (i.e., number of Black candidates chosen for final job interviews)]. No effects for actor observability were detected. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical, methodological, and practical implications in regard to organizational wrongdoing, particularly institutional racism.
We explore the meaning and significance of relational identity and relational identification, predicated on the role-relationship between two individuals. We argue that relational identity integrates person- and role-based identities and thereby the individual, interpersonal, and collective levels of self; contrast relational identity and relational identification with social identity and social identification; contend that relational identity and relational identification are each arranged in a cognitive hierarchy ranging from generalized to particularized schemas; and contrast relational identification with relational disidentification and ambivalent relational identification.
Survey experiments are ubiquitous in social science. A frequent critique is that positive results in these studies stem from experimenter demand effects (EDEs)—bias that occurs when participants infer the purpose of an experiment and respond so as to help confirm a researcher’s hypothesis. We argue that online survey experiments have several features that make them robust to EDEs, and test for their presence in studies that involve over 12,000 participants and replicate five experimental designs touching on all empirical political science subfields. We randomly assign participants information about experimenter intent and show that providing this information does not alter the treatment effects in these experiments. Even financial incentives to respond in line with researcher expectations fail to consistently induce demand effects. Research participants exhibit a limited ability to adjust their behavior to align with researcher expectations, a finding with important implications for the design and interpretation of survey experiments.
Applications and conceptual developments made in social identity research since the mid-1990s are summarized under eight general headings: types of self and identity, prototype-based differentiation, influence through leadership, social identity motivations, intergroup emotions, intergroup conflict and social harmony, collective behavior and social protest, and resolving social dilemmas. Cautious prognoses for future directions are then suggested—health, e-behavior, population relocation and immigration, culture, language and intergroup communication, societal extremism and populism, social development, and inclusive and diverse social identities.
Despite women’s advancement in the workplace, their representation in male-dominated fields and occupations remains distressingly low. Women now comprise about half of the workforce, but very few end up at the top levels of business organizations. In 2013, women held only 16.9 per cent of corporate board seats in the USA, and only 4.6 per cent of executive directors were women (Catalyst, 2014). Percentages are similar in the UK: 15 per cent of board directors were women, and they comprised less than 7 per cent of the executive positions in British companies (Catalyst, 2012). What accounts for the scarcity of women in traditionally male roles? It is not a consequence of differential experience, education or skills. The overall percentage of undergraduate and graduate degrees (both Master’s and doctoral) obtained by women in the USA and the UK now exceeds that of men (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010; Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2012). Moreover, in terms of cognitive skills and abilities, women and men tend to be more similar than different (Biernat and Deaux, 2012).
We conducted a metal-analysis of correlations between role ambiguity and job performance and role conflict and job performance. Previous meta-analyses of these role constructs and performance relationships (e.g., Jackson & Schuler; 1985) were limited by small sample sizes and sparse reporting of reliability estimates in primary studies. The present study used a comprehensive database with a larger sample size and a distribution of interrater reliabilities to extend the previous findings. We also tested moderator hypotheses proposed but not conducted by Jackson ann Schuler: Results revealed a negative relationship (rho = -.21) between role ambiguity and job performance with moderating influences due to job type and rating source. A negligible relationship (rho = -.07) was observed for role conflict and job performance, a finding consistent across job types and rating sources. Conclusions were that role ambiguity ought not to Dr dismissed as an unimportant variable ill the job performance domain.
This study examines the relationship of several perceived characteristics of the work environment among auditors working for different sized public accounting firms. Specifically, the study explores the linkages among exercised responsibility, experience, autonomy, and role ambiguity and their relationship to job performance of 334 auditors working for international and regional firms. A hypothetical model was developed and tested using latent variable structural equation analysis techniques. Exercised responsibility, a variable believed to be new to accounting research, uses biographical items to measure the extent to which a person has actually exercised authority. In the resulting model, exercised responsibility is positively associated with experience, autonomy, and job performance and negatively associated with role ambiguity. Exercised responsibility is considered for future research and its potential in recruiting employees.
Campus racial harassment provided the context for an experiment, replicated over 3 different campus samples, regarding the effects of social influence on Whites' reactions to racism. Hearing some-one condemn racism led Ss to express significantly stronger antiracist opinions than occurred following exposure to a no-influence control condition. Furthermore, hearing someone condone racism led Ss to adopt significantly less strong antiracist positions than when no other opinions were introduced. The robust social influence effects were obtained regardless of whether the source was White or Black or whether Ss responded publicly or privately. A social context approach to interracial settings is discussed.
This review article posits that the scarcity of women at the upper levels of organizations is a consequence of gender bias in evaluations. It is proposed that gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce about both what women are like (descriptive) and how they should behave (prescriptive) can result in devaluation of their performance, denial of credit to them for their successes, or their penalization for being competent. The processes giving rise to these outcomes are explored, and the procedures that are likely to encourage them are identified. Because of gender bias and the way in which it influences evaluations in work settings, it is argued that being competent does not ensure that a woman will advance to the same organizational level as an equivalently performing man.
This article presents culture as a vehicle of labor market sorting. Providing a case study of hiring in elite professional service firms, I investigate the often suggested but heretofore empirically unexamined hypothesis that cultural similarities between employers and job candidates matter for employers' hiring decisions. Drawing from 120 interviews with employers as well as participant observation of a hiring committee, I argue that hiring is more than just a process of skills sorting; it is also a process of cultural matching between candidates, evaluators, and firms. Employers sought candidates who were not only competent but also culturally similar to themselves in terms of leisure pursuits, experiences, and self-presentation styles. Concerns about shared culture were highly salient to employers and often outweighed concerns about absolute productivity. I unpack the interpersonal processes through which cultural similarities affected candidate evaluation in elite firms and provide the first empirical demonstration that shared culture-particularly in the form of lifestyle markers-matters for employer hiring. I conclude by discussing the implications for scholarship on culture, inequality, and labor markets.
There is a growing research literature suggesting that racism is an important risk factor undermining the health of Blacks in the United States. Racism can take many forms, ranging from interpersonal interactions to institutional/structural conditions and practices. Existing research, however, tends to focus on individual forms of racial discrimination using self-report measures. Far less attention has been paid to whether structural racism may disadvantage the health of Blacks in the United States. The current study addresses gaps in the existing research by using novel measures of structural racism and by explicitly testing the hypothesis that structural racism is a risk factor for myocardial infarction among Blacks in the United States. State-level indicators of structural racism included four domains: (1) political participation; (2) employment and job status; (3) educational attainment; and (4) judicial treatment. State-level racial disparities across these domains were proposed to represent the systematic exclusion of Blacks from resources and mobility in society. Data on past-year myocardial infarction were obtained from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (non-Hispanic Black: N = 8245; non-Hispanic White: N = 24,507), a nationally representative survey of the U.S. civilian, non-institutionalized population aged 18 and older. Models were adjusted for individual-level confounders (age, sex, education, household income, medical insurance) as well as for state-level disparities in poverty. Results indicated that Blacks living in states with high levels of structural racism were generally more likely to report past-year myocardial infarction than Blacks living in low-structural racism states. Conversely, Whites living in high structural racism states experienced null or lower odds of myocardial infarction compared to Whites living in low-structural racism states. These results raise the provocative possibility that structural racism may not only harm the targets of stigma but also benefit those who wield the power to enact stigma and discrimination.
G*Power (Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) was designed as a general stand-alone power analysis program for statistical tests commonly used in social and behavioral research. G*Power 3 is a major extension of, and improvement over, the previous versions. It runs on widely used computer platforms (i.e., Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4) and covers many different statistical tests of the t, F, and chi2 test families. In addition, it includes power analyses for z tests and some exact tests. G*Power 3 provides improved effect size calculators and graphic options, supports both distribution-based and design-based input modes, and offers all types of power analyses in which users might be interested. Like its predecessors, G*Power 3 is free.
The psychological impact of perceived discrimination varies significantly depending on the extent to which targets expect to be stereotyped (e.g., their level of stigma consciousness). The present research investigated the moderating effect of stigma consciousness on women’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to gender discrimination that differed in the level of situational ambiguity. Female participants imagined themselves applying for and failing to receive a desired job from a male interviewer, whose description was manipulated to reflect blatant or ambiguous prejudice. Participants higher in stigma consciousness were more likely to attribute their failure to prejudice, especially when the situation was ambiguous. Stigma consciousness predicted both other-directed emotions and active coping in response to ambiguous prejudice. Thus, while stigma consciousness has typically been associated with negative outcomes, the present research reveals that it may also have adaptive effects. The implications of these results for being chronically sensitive to stigmatization are discussed.
This research extends the role incongruity analysis of employment-related gender bias by investigating the role of dispositional and situational antecedents, specifically political ideology and the salience of cues to the traditional female gender role. The prediction that conservatives would show an anti-female candidate bias and liberals would show a pro-female bias when the traditional female gender role is salient was tested across three experimental studies. In Study 1, 126 participants evaluated a male or a female job applicant with thoughts of the traditional female gender role activated or not. Results showed that when the gender role is salient, political ideology moderates evaluations of the female candidates such that conservatives evaluate her negatively and liberals evaluate her positively. Study 2 (89 participants) replicated this effect and showed that this political ideology-based bias does not occur when the non-traditional female gender role is made salient. Study 2 also demonstrated that the observed effects are not driven by liberals' and conservatives' differing perceptions regarding the female applicant's qualifications for the job. Finally, Study 3 (159 participants) both replicated the political ideology-based evaluation bias for female candidates and demonstrated that this bias is mediated by conservatives' and liberals' attitudes toward the roles of women in society.
This review article posits that the scarcity of women at the upper levels of organizations is a consequence of gender bias in evaluations. It is proposed that gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce about both what women are like (descriptive) and how they should behave (prescriptive) can result in devaluation of their performance, denial of credit to them for their successes, or their penalization for being competent. The processes giving rise to these outcomes are explored, and the procedures that are likely to encourage them are identified. Because of gender bias and the way in which it influences evaluations in work settings, it is argued that being competent does not ensure that a woman will advance to the same organizational level as an equivalently performing man.
While the interactionist tradition of sociological role theory has been recognized as a promising conceptual framework for linking theories of social structure and social cognition, there remains little empirical research that examines the link between cognitive structure and role behavior. Our study tests the fundamental assumption that commitment to role behavior is associated with the development of a corresponding cognitive structure, through an analysis of a six-week field experiment designed to produce commitment to the role of “recycler.” We propose that intervention program participation resulted in recycler role-identity development, as well as corresponding changes in cognitive structure—i.e., the development of cognitive schemata—linked to the emergence of a new role-based view of self.
Role theory concerns one of the most important features of social life, characteristic behavior patterns or roles. It explains roles by presuming that persons are members of social positions and hold expectations for their own behaviors and those of other persons. Its vocabulary and concerns are popular among social scientists and practitioners, and role concepts have generated a lot of research. At least five perspectives may be discriminated in recent work within the field: functional, symbolic interactionist, structural, organizational, and cognitive role theory. Much of role research reflects practical concerns and derived concepts, and research on four such concepts is reviewed: consensus, conformity, role conflict, and role taking. Recent developments suggest both centrifugal and integrative forces within the role field. The former reflect differing perspectival commitments of scholars, confusions and disagreements over use of role concepts, and the fact that role theory is used to analyze various f...
Outlines the essential elements of a role theoretical perspective and explores its potential importance to service performance in people-based service encounters. Drawing on Biddle, and on Solomon et al.’s interpretations, how role theory enhances our marketing exchange understanding by focusing on the interactive features within successful service encounters is demonstrated. Outlines how role management offers a framework to evaluate the degree of interactivity sought in relationship approaches. Role theory, it is argued, can enable organizations to identify role development needs for service personnel within interactive service formats and permits organizations to monitor processual elements of service performance. A managerial framework, which identifies specific role management tasks in client encounters, is developed. This, it is proposed, may operate in two domains, internally within the service process and externally within the service encounter with clients. The contribution of role to the service life cycle, as a factor in service performance, and as a means to encourage customer retention is discussed: its application in different services contexts is briefly outlined.
This book presents a new theory of the social group which seeks to explain how individuals become unified into a group and capable of collective behaviour.
The book summarizes classic psychological theories of the group, describes and explains the important effects of group membership on social behaviour, outlines self-categorization theory in full and shows how the general perspective has been applied in research on group formation and cohesion, social influence, the polarization of social attitudes, crowd psychology and social stereotyping. The theory emerges as a fundamental new contribution to social psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that occupational sex bias is not inevitable nor invariable and presents a "lack of fit" model to describe the dynamics of sex bias and the conditions that prompt and support its occurrence in organizational settings. The model uses a single principle to explain how both self-directed sex bias (self-limiting behavior) and other-directed sex bias (discrimination) operate before and after a woman's entry into an organization. Areas considered include selection, evaluation, and causal explanations of success. A review of the literature demonstrates the integrative capacity of the model, and consideration of the model's implications illustrates its practical utility in furthering organizational change to reduce sex bias in the workplace. (71 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The glass cliff refers to the phenomenon whereby women are overrepresented in leadership roles associated with high risk and an increased chance of failure. Research into the glass cliff has focused on documenting the existence of the phenomenon and understanding the psychological processes that contribute to the appointment of women to precarious positions. This paper summarises this research and extends it by examining the implications that glass cliff positions have, both for the women who occupy them and for the organisations in which they exist. The gender-stress-disidentification model suggests that glass cliff positions are inherently stressful, and lead women to experience a reduced sense of organisational identification. This, in turn, has important implications for organisations in terms of reduced commitment and increased turnover. Taken together, the research presented here offers an alternative analysis of women's increasing disaffection with the workplace, which takes into account gender differences in workplace experience.
This essay discusses the continuing value of and problems in G. H. Mead's contributions to sociology from the standpoint of the contemporary discipline. It argues that the value is considerable and the problems largely avoidable with modifications to Mead's framework. And it offers necessary modifications via structural symbolic interactionism. Permitting the development of testable theories such as identity theory is a major criterion in evaluating a frame; capacity to bridge to other frames and theories inside and outside sociology is another. The essay examines bridges from the structural symbolic interactionist frame and identity theory to other symbolic interactionist theories, to other social psychological frames and theories in sociology, to cognitive social psychology, and to structural sociology.
This paper studies the impact of gender quotas for corporate board seats on corporate decisions. We examine the introduction of Norway’s 2006 quota, comparing affected firms to other Nordic companies, public and private, that were unaffected by the rule. We find that affected firms undertook fewer workforce reductions than comparison firms, increasing relative labor costs and employment levels and reducing short-term profits. The effects are strongest among firms without female board members beforehand and are present even for boards with older and more experienced members afterward. The boards appear to be affecting corporate strategy in part by selecting likeminded executives.
Four experiments were conducted to explore how people allocate social resources between meritorious and needy parties. As predicted, participants with high social dominance orientation (SDO), who prefer hierarchical relationships in society, favored meritorious parties. In contrast, participants with low SDO, who value social equality, favored needy parties. Participants appealed to merit- or need-based ideologies to justify their allocations. Apparently, the notion of fairness denotes merit-based reasoning to people with high SDO, whereas it denotes need-based reasoning for those with low SDO. Among the participants, merit- and need-based ideologies were not simply post hoc rationalizations, but rather mediated the allocation decisions. Implications for the study of ideology and for theories of distributive justice are discussed.