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The Effects of Sex, Status, and Ability on Helping Behavior 1
Author(s) -
Dovidio John F.,
Gaertner Samuel L.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1983.tb01734.x
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , competence (human resources) , developmental psychology , affirmative action , law , political science
Protests against affirmative action articulate the concern that qualified white males will be subordinated to less qualified women and minorities. To examine the possibility that the reversal of traditional status relationships rather than competence inequity underlies resistance to affiimative action, a study was conducted in which subjects interacted with a male or female who was introduced as their supervisor or subordinate and as either higher or lower in ability than themselves. The results indicate that status, not ability, influences the frequency of helping women, whereas ability, not status, primarily influences helping behavior toward men. Specifically. female subordinates were helped more than females supervisors, regardless of ability, while high‐ability males elicited more help than low‐ability males, independent of status. Subsequent ratings revealed that although subjects acknowledged the greater competence of high‐ability males, they did not evaluate high‐ability females as more competent than themselves.